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By Huw Jones
LONDON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Banks must apply the same
standards of surveillance and conduct to staff working from home
or in the office during the pandemic and in future as working
practices change, Britain's Financial Conduct Authority said on
Monday.
The FCA is paying particular attention to how inside or
sensitive information is handled at a time when the volume of
mergers, and issuance of shares and debt is rising sharply to
keep companies afloat.
There is a risk of less self-policing among front office
staff working from home, said Julia Hoggett, the FCA's director
for market oversight.
"This is especially true of firms which invest in distressed
debt markets where inside information is not always as clearly
demarcated as in equity markets."
What constitutes inside information may change radically
during the pandemic, she said.
It could now include knowledge that an entire business’
operations would have to shut or reopen, whether a company has
used a government-backed relief scheme, or details about the
pace of cashflow burn, she said.
"This requires companies and their advisers to be alert to
what information is likely to drive their valuation and to bring
a potentially wider range of issues to be discussed at their
disclosure committees," Hoggett said.
Banking staff began working from home in March when the UK
economy went into lockdown. Some staff began returning to
offices over the summer but a resurgence in the virus has forced
many to work from home again.
"We will ...have to navigate a huge amount of change over
coming months ...that will no doubt include both hybrid ways of
working and, indeed over time, potentially long-term changes to
the way that we all work," said Hoggett.
"Our expectation is that, going forward, office and
people-working-from-home arrangements should be equivalent," she
told a City & Financial online event.
(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Jason
Neely)
