This section is intended to provide information on the 
Market Abuse (Directive 2003/6/EC) Regulations 2005 (the Regulations) which came into operation on 6 July 2005.
The Central Bank of Ireland is the competent authority for the purposes of the Regulations. The Markets and Stockbrokers Supervision Division of the Central Bank of Ireland is responsible for the competent authority functions arising from the Regulations.
The Regulations provide for the prohibition of insider dealing and market manipulation in respect of financial instruments admitted to trading on a European Economic Area (EEA) regulated market, such as the Main Securities Market of the Irish Stock Exchange Limited.
The prohibition also applies in respect of a financial instrument for which a request for admission to trading on a regulated market has been sought irrespective of whether or not the transaction itself actually takes place on that regulated market.
Specific Obligations
The Regulations also include specific obligations on:
- persons professionally arranging transactions to notify suspicious transactions to the Central Bank of Ireland;
- issuers of financial instruments to publicly disclose inside information without delay;
- issuers of financial instruments to draw up lists of persons with access to insider information;
- those involved in the management of issuers of financial instruments to comply with notification rules regarding managers' transactions;
- persons, including the media and journalists, involved in the preparation and dissemination of recommendations regarding, inter alia, the presentation and the disclosure of significant financial interests and conflicts of interests.