The government proposal for new securities market legislation was submitted in April this year, suggesting a complete reform of the Acts related to the securities market. The new legislation has been prepared based on a comparison of similar legislation in relevant competitor countries and by taking into account changes in EU legislation, which aim to unify securities market legislation on Community level.
Key goals of the reform include improving the understandability, clarity and applicability of securities market legislation, increasing safety in security holdings and making supervision of insider regulations and sanctions for market abuse more efficient. The reform will restructure the securities market legislation completely and divide the current Securities Market Act into several separate Acts.
The new securities market Act will mostly contain regulations with regard to listed companies and material changes relate primarily to regulations concerning the obligation to publish a prospectus, the disclosure obligations of listed companies, flagging obligations and liability for damages. An important goal of the new act is to decrease the administrative burden to listed companies, thus increasing listings. New acts to be implemented in connection to the reform also include an act on securities accounts, an act on the book entry system and clearing of securities, as well as an act on the stock exchange, multilateral trading and transparency in stock trading.