Commentary Miscellaneous and supplementary Section 964: Amendments to Financial Services and Markets Act 2000
1226.This section repeals section 143 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (“FSMA”) which, by endorsing the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, presently provides a mechanism for the Financial Services Authority to bring disciplinary and enforcement action against authorised persons for misconduct in relation to the Code. Given that the Code will be replaced by rules which have legal force as a consequence of the Act, it is considered that there is no longer a need to maintain section 143.
1227.This will not, however, preclude the Panel from reporting breaches of the Code by authorised persons in relation to takeover bids to the Financial Services Authority, as at present, and any such breaches will still be taken into account by the FSA, for example, in assessing whether such persons are fit and proper to be authorised for business of that kind or have otherwise complied with their regulatory obligations (for example, whether they are meeting proper standards of market conduct).
1228.A consequential amendment is made by section 964(3) to preserve the definition of “consultation procedures” currently contained at section 143(7) for the purposes of the provisions in section 144 of FSMA relating to price stabilising rules. Additionally, to ensure consistency with the requirements of Article 4.4 of the Directive as regards the duties of takeover regulatory and financial services authorities within the EU to co-operate with each other, the existing disclosure and regulatory co-operation obligations of the Financial Services Authority under sections 349 and 354 of FSMA are amended to include cooperation with relevant authorities referred to by the Directive and to remove restrictions on disclosure to such authorities. These duties reflect the disclosure and co-operation provisions in sections 948 and 950 (including provisions related to the rules on disclosure that apply where information is passed to other takeover supervisory authorities and financial services regulators described in relation to section 948(6)).