The FCA's First Antitrust Decision: "When Market Chatter Becomes Collusion"

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) officials who were involved in the FCA's first competition decision, Anti-Competitive Conduct in the Asset Management Sector,¹ shared their views on the case at a Skadden-moderated Q&A session on July 2, 2019.

Background. The FCA investigated communications between asset managers and their competitors sharing their views on pricing and volume intentions on two initial public offerings (IPOs) and one share placement.

For example, at 8:10 a.m. on 21 September 2015, a Newton Investment Management Limited fund manager sent an email blind-copied to 12 of his asset manager competitors. "Sorry for the out of the blue email," he wrote. "I wanted to urge those considering or in for the [On the Beach] IPO to think about moving to a 260m pre money valuation limit ..." The communications spanned phone calls — to both private and work phones — Bloomberg chats and emails.