June 1999
Introduction
A committee broadly representative of the securities industry under the chairmanship of Mr Mervyn King ("the Task Group") was appointed in 1995 at the instance of the Minister of Finance to investigate the adequacy of our law on insider trading (which appeared, essentially, in section 440F of the Companies Act, 1973). The Task Group reported finally in October 1997 and its recommendations formed the basis for the enactment of the Insider Trading Act, 1998 ("the Act") which came into force on 17 January 1999.
Scope
The Act covers trading in every kind of security or financial instrument. It is, however, limited to those securities and financial instruments which are dealt in on a regulated market. The market might be a domestic or a foreign one and it does not matter that the actual dealing might take place over the counter.
