On 16 December the Dubai Financial Services Authority (‘DFSA’) published its Code of Market Conduct (the ‘Code’) which will apply from 1 January 2015. The Code is intended to provide guidance and clarity to the market abuse regime which, in its current form, has been in place in the Dubai International Financial Centre (‘DIFC’) since 2012. At that time, changes were implemented to align the DIFC’s market abuse regime with that applicable in the European Union under the Market Abuse Directive, as implemented in the UK.

The Code is the first practical guidance issued by the DFSA on the application of the market abuse regime in the DIFC. Assuming the DIFC regime is the same as that applying elsewhere, especially the UK, is an easy mistake to make. The Code being published presents firms with an opportunity to review current policies, procedures, systems and controls in this area and test them against the DFSA’s understanding of the application of the regime.