3 Reasons Brexit Won’t Halt EU Market Abuse Rules

While the British vote to exit the European Union continues to sow uncertainty in financial markets and elsewhere, experts say firms can still count on one thing — that the U.K. will hold on to new EU regulations on insider trading and market abuse, set to take effect on Sunday, even if it follows through on opting out of the EU itself

The EU Market Abuse Regulation, a new framework that strengthens prohibitions on insider trading and market manipulation and extends existing rules to new markets and products, is set to go forward on July 3, just over a week after U.K. citizens voted in a referendum to exit the EU altogether.

But the rules will no longer apply if the U.K. opts to exit the EEA in addition to a “hard Brexit,” a move Dechert LLP senior lawyer Roger Matthews said isn’t out of the question given the Leave campaign’s focus on restricting the free movement of workers between EEA member states.