Introduction to Securities Markets Regulation

Securities markets regulation is concerned with overseeing the circulation of information about securities that are traded, monitoring the market for the abuse of information or financial resources to manipulate market and prices and supervising the corporate governance of organised markets.

The purpose of securities markets regulation is to promote an efficient and fair securities market.

In Ireland, the legal framework for securities markets regulation is based closely on EU law and a number of EU Directives -  the Criminal Sanctions for Market Abuse Directive, the Transparency Directive, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and the Listing Directive; have been transposed into Irish law. The Prospectus Regulation, Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation, Short Selling Regulations and Regulation 648/2012 on OTC Derivatives, Central Counterparties and Trade Repositories ("EMIR") and the Market Abuse Regulation are also directly applicable in Ireland. The Listing Act introduced a package of measures to overhaul the prospectus regime. These amend and update the Prospectus Regulation, Market Abuse Regulation, Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation and Directive and introduce a new Directive on multiple vote share structures.

The Central Bank of Ireland has been appointed competent authority for most of this law. In this capacity as competent authority, it has issued Prospectus, Market Abuse and Transparency Rules.

With regard to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II, the Central Bank is responsible for the prudential supervision of  Euronext Dublin operated by the Irish Stock Exchange trading as Euronext Dublin.

Under the European Union (Markets in Financial Instruments) Regulations 2017, the sole regulated market is Euronext Dublin operated by Euronext Dublin. Euronext Dublin is the Market Operator of the regulated market and other markets which are Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTFs).

The Central Bank is responsible for approving the rules of an investment firm or market operator that operates an MTF.

The Central Bank has developed guidelines for investment firms that intend to establish an MTF in Ireland. These Guidelines can be found in the Authorisation Process for MIFID Firms section of this website.