Deceptive maneuver: fines for insiders will increase by an order of magnitude
Fines for insider trading and market manipulation will increase by an order of magnitude — they will increase to millions of rubles, Izvestia found out. The new sanctions will be three to five times the amount of income received by the violator. Currently, officials face a fine of 50,000 rubles for such abuses, and 500,000 rubles for companies. In addition, the authorities intend to extend the statute of limitations for prosecution and impose restrictions on those who have access to classified information. Even one such violation can cause multimillion-dollar losses and dramatically change the value of assets, as a result of which investors lose their savings. The law may become effective in 2026. How much it will support the market is in the Izvestia article.
How will insider trading and market manipulation be dealt with
In Russia, responsibility for insider trading and market manipulation will be tightened. The government's Commission on Legislative Activity has supported the main changes to counter illegal securities schemes, subject to their completion, sources in the Cabinet of Ministers told Izvestia.
— The comments of the government and the Supreme Court were mostly technical in nature, conceptually the law was supported and finalized, — said Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets.
The initiative was supported by the Central Bank and relevant departments — the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Justice, according to the materials of the board. The document will be considered in the State Duma in the autumn session, and the law may come into force as early as 2026 with a delay of several months for the preparation of regulatory documents, Anatoly Aksakov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed to change this legislation back in 2024.
Insider trading is the purchase or sale of securities (stocks, bonds, and others) based on non—public information that can significantly affect the price of these securities after its publication. Insiders include owners and top managers of companies, influential shareholders, and employees of enterprises with access to private data. At the same time, market manipulation is an artificial "price escalation". For example, it creates a false impression of high demand or supply in order to mislead other investors and capitalize on their reactions.
The initiative proposes to shift the focus from criminal liability to administrative responsibility: the main goal is to make insider trading and market manipulation economically unprofitable. The fines are planned to be increased three to five times, depending on the amount of income received by the violator, Kirill Pronin, head of the Central Bank's financial market infrastructure department, said earlier. He recalled that now there are essentially fixed penalties — 3-5 thousand rubles for individuals, 50 thousand for officials and 500-700 thousand for companies.
According to some reports, insider trading was carried out in the amount of almost 1 billion rubles, and the total amount of penalties from violators was about 5 million, Anatoly Aksakov noted. Responsibility was very weak, and fines did not deter abuse. The proposed measures should solve this problem.
In addition, it is proposed to triple the period during which violators can be fined to three years, Kirill Pronin from the Central Bank reported. This is especially important because it takes time to register the fact of such trading or market manipulation. Nevertheless, the regulator has learned to disclose such cases quickly enough — now it takes about four to six months. Ultimately, due to these measures, unfair practices should become unprofitable and too risky for the participants.
In addition, preventive measures will be introduced against insiders. So, people who have sensitive information about the issuers of shares will have to report transactions with them. In addition, such investors will not be able to make transactions for some time before the publication of significant information about the company, and organizations will have the right to request documents confirming compliance with the prohibitions.
Special restrictions will affect "super insiders" — top management and members of the boards of directors. Their actions with the company's securities will be publicly disclosed.
Why fight against Insider trading and market manipulation
Unfair practices create serious imbalances in the financial market, said Dmitry Tselishchev, Managing Director of the Rikom-Trust investment company. Insiders make super profits at the expense of less informed investors — even one such violation can lead to multimillion-dollar damage for all players. Manipulation can lead to serious fluctuations in asset prices and destabilize entire market segments.
Manipulations are now more common with low—liquid assets - that is, with those that are rarely bought and sold, explained Dmitry Lesnov, Deputy General Director for brokerage Business at Finam. An attacker buys such an asset in advance, and then, for example, distributes information through messengers that encourages other investors to buy. When many people start buying, the price rises sharply. At this point, the manipulator sells his shares for a profit, and after that, the value of the asset falls rapidly, and other investors suffer losses.
Since the beginning of the year, the Central Bank has registered five cases of market manipulation and the use of insider information, according to the regulator. There were 10 in 2024 and 18 in 2023.
Judging by the number of administrative cases, it cannot be said that these problems are widespread, but perhaps not all such situations can be fixed, Dmitry Lesnov added.
Nevertheless, the problem of unfair practices is especially noticeable in Russia, where the market is less stable and the share of private investors is higher, said Vladimir Chernov, analyst at Freedom Finance Global. Such actions distort the real price of securities, make it more abrupt and unpredictable, and increase the cost of raising capital. But the main harm is the loss of investor confidence and the withdrawal of long—term investments.
The reform of the Central Bank may work and lead to a sharp decrease in the number of such practices. The main focus of the new initiatives is on the multiple increase in fines, which will be higher than illegally obtained income. Dmitry Lesnov is convinced that this approach — "punishing with rubles" — looks like the right solution to the problem. It can be expected that together with an increase in the detection of violations, these measures will significantly reduce the number of market manipulations.
If it is possible to overcome insider trading, market prices will fluctuate more calmly, the difference between the cost of buying and selling assets will become smaller, and the market will become more stable, Vladimir Chernov is sure. For private investors, this means fair entry and exit prices for assets, fewer risks, and a more predictable outcome for strategies.
The stock market is currently facing the president's task of doubling capitalization by 2030, Dmitry Tselishchev from Rikom-Trust recalled. The fight against insider and manipulation alone will not lead to the fulfillment of the assignment, but it will create a solid foundation for this. Transparency and investor confidence are exactly what can attract more funds in the face of external uncertainty.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
