The City watchdog has admitted that it must tighten its rules over trading by staff in shares of the banks and brokers it regulates after an internal inquiry found that sensitive information was being stored in places where any employee could find it.
An internal audit report by the Financial Conduct Authority published yesterday found that senior managers were “not aware” of what information they needed to get from employees before allowing them to buy and trade shares of regulated businesses and that the organisation had no system in place to monitor whether staff were following the rules.
The FCA said its testing of internal procedures for handling confidential work found that many staff were able to access market sensitive reports on Livelink, the authority’s