Finanstilsynet, the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA), opened 260 cases of alleged market abuse last year, an increase from 246 cases in 2022. Of those, 132 related to suspicion of insider trading, a 50% increase from the previous year. And 38 of the insider trading cases were also sent to foreign authorities to investigate. The FSA was also sent 19 inquiries from foreign authorities to process.

Out of all cases on suspected insider trading, 15 were taken to the police – the highest number since 2009. The FSA says that the increase involved a few complex cases which included multiple people.

“Individual complex cases of possible insider trading have led to several police reports. At the same time, we can see a decrease in cases regarding wash trading, which we, among other things, can attribute to the information and prevention efforts that have been made in this area both by us and in the banks,” said deputy director Anders Balling, head of Finanstilsynet’s office for capital market analysis. 

Three cases of possible market manipulation were also taken to the police, down from 10 cases in 2022. Most police reports were, however, made in 2010, when 67 cases were sent to the police, with 59 cases of alleged market manipulation.

During last year, the FSA issued eight charges and injunctions. It also issued one administrative fine of DKr 60,000 ($8,736) against Nilfisk Holding A/S. This was for breaching disclosure obligations when failing to notify the market in a timely manner of changes in a major shareholder’s holding of shares and voting rights.

The FSA also issued four other fine proposals – all for violating the the Money Laundering Act, which included:

• December – Administrative fine of DKr 6m ($873,556) on SAC A/S;
• October – Administrative fine of DKr 50,000 ($7,279) to Volvo Financial Services Denmark A/S;
• May – Administrative fine of DKr 360,000 ($52,412) on + Leasing A/S; and
• May – Administrative fine of DKr 1,225,000 ($177,704) on Forza Leasing A/S.

Flagging staff

One type of violation of disclosure obligations that has decreased during the years is flagging senior staff, which has gone down from 40 cases in 2021 to 18 in 2023. Of the 18 cases, five resulted in either prosecutions or injunctions, compared to 24 in 2021. However, flagging shareholders has gone in the other direction, and increased slightly during the last three years.

Since 2011, most cases of alleged violations of disclosure obligations were made in 2018, with:

• 39 cases of flagging senior staff (of which 33 ended in prosecution or injunction);
• 28 cases of breaching publication of internal knowledge obligations (with 10 ending in prosecution or injunction);
• and nine cases of major shareholder flagging (six ending in prosecution or injunction).