THE EDITOR
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Mr Hector Sants
Chief Executive Officer
Financial Services Authority
25 The North Colonnade
Canary Wharf, London
E14 SHS
11 October 2010
Dear Mr Sants,
We, the undersigned, are writing to express our profound concems regarding the
most recent set of best practice recommendations issued by the FSA's Markets
Division as part of its ongoing “thematic work" assessing regulated firms’ approach to
controlling leaks.
These recommendations, set out in Issue No.37 of “Market Watch", dated September
2010, represent in our view a misguided response to the perceived problem of leaks
that will only injure the market integrity they purport to protect.
Properly functioning financial markets rely on the flow of accurate and timely
information, available to all participants simultaneously. In the world of instant media,
the pressure on journalists is to publish information ahead of anyone else. This
information, in turn, is swiftly picked up by others. So the media, contrary to the
assumptions underlying the recommendations, actually play a key role in protecting
investors and other markets’ participant by inhibiting the creation of an unlevel and
unfair market place due to the limited circulation of insider information. And the
media's on-line services reach European investors, so helping create a level
European playing field
Under Recommendation 2, all media enquiries of any kind addressed to a regulated
company will be directed to a firm’s media relations personnel, who will be required
to review the enquiry to “decide if it potentially relates to inside information’, with a
mandate to “err on the side of caution”. Conversations with the press will have to be
recorded, or a note taker from a firm's media relations team will need to be present.
The proposal that all contacts between journalists and regulated firms should
become subject to a prior screening process is disproportionate and unacceptable,
and should be corrected
These proposals reflect a wilful misunderstanding of the relationship between the
Gity and the press and will ultimately do more harm than benefit to the flow of reliable
information, Regulated firms will find it much easier to hide behind bland press
releases that conceal inconvenient corporate realities and there is a heightened risk
that journalists will feel compelled to publish unconfirmed reports and rumours,
increasing the flow of misinformation,
Journalists and the media play a key role in maintaining a level playing field in the
Agpske! by unearthing and disseminating information - including material that
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companies seek to hide, obscure or spin. By adopting an overly prescriptive
approach to preventing leaks, the recommendations would greatly restrict the
capacity of the media to carry out investigations of regulated firms such as banks,
asset managers and brokers. This has broader ramifications. As the credit crisis has
underlined, these firms are key parts of the financial structure and economy and
more public scrutiny of their transactions is required, not less.
It is also far from clear that the recommendations will even achieve their stated
objective. Individuals who want to leak information will always be able to find a
means of doing so and the pian fails to adequately address strategic leaks.
The US adopted Regulation Fair Disclosure in 2000 to prevent selective disclosure of
sensitive information, in part to address the problem of leaks to analysis and the
media, but the regulation has had litle measurable effect on reducing the amount of
insider trading.
Although the many pages of detailed recommendations are not meant to be
interpreted as “FSA guidance’, the Markets Division nonetheless states in its
Conclusion that it will be following up on the issues raised and makes clear that
action will be taken where they “deem unacceptable practices have occurred”
Compliance does not appear voluntary.
As a final point, we would like to underscore our concern that these
recommendations, although targeted at contacts with the media, have been drafted
and issued without any prior consultation with the media, contrary to the Better
Regulation Task Force - Five Principles of Good Regulation, published in 1997.
For the reasons set out above we urge you to reconsider and revoke these
recommendations.
We also invite the FSA to enter into a constructive dialogue with the media. It is vital
that financial journalism can continue its important role in informing investors and
markets professionals and thereby contributing to the transparency and integrity of
the UK's financial markets,
Yours sincerely,
Porn Th ae Oe
Lionel Barber
Editor, The Financial Times
Alan Rusbridger
Editor-in-Chief, Guardian News & Media
ee
David Schlesinger
Editor-in-Chief, Thomson Reuters.FINANCIAL
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James Harding
Editor
The Times