On 3 October 2019, the FICC Markets Standards Board (FMSB) published a statement of good practice (the Statement) on information and confidentiality for the fixed income and commodity (FICC) markets. The purpose of the Statement is to provide clarity to certain questions relating to the sharing of information within FICC markets.
The FMSB states that recent conduct events have brought attention to the risks associated with sharing information between market participants. Market participants are becoming concerned regarding the risks posed as to what types of information they can share.
The Statement sets out nine good practice statements relevant to information and confidentiality in FICC markets, together with commentary and examples explaining their rationale. The good practice statements cover the following areas:
- the control and identification of confidential information and managing data integrity;
- the exchange of views shared by market participants on the general state of the market and maintaining client confidentiality;
- the use of confidential information internally and externally;
- acting upon public information and observable events;
- the appropriate forms of communication channel and avoiding collusion; and
- designing policies and procedures to monitor communications.