Parliament has given its green light today in plenary to new rules on sanctions for financial misconduct such as market manipulation and insider dealing, but the draft legislation does not go far enough according to GUE/NGL MEP Marisa Matias.

The Portuguese MEP commented: “Tougher and harmonised sanctions at the EU level are to be welcomed. However, sanctions and the fear of jail time alone are not enough to tackle the fundamental problems with financial markets. Fraudulent practices committed by natural persons should also come with serious consequences for the institution that has been involved in such activities e.g. winding-up of the legal person or the closure of its business activity.

“Furthermore these new rules don't question in any way the overarching logic of improving the efficiency of financial markets by sanctioning certain behaviour.”