September plenary session of the European Parliament dealt also with financial and monetary issues with special focus on financial markets´ regulation, insider trading and SSM – single supervisory mechanism for banking system of the European Union.

New rules imposing tougher sanctions for manipulations on financial markets, misuse of inside information and insider trading aim to ensure higher level of investor protection in the European Union. Companies that will abuse market could get a fine up to 15 million euro or 15% of their annual turnover. These measures were adopted as a response to the LIBOR scandal.

MEPs also approved the EU bank supervision mechanism which will be compulsory for Eurozone members and open for the rest of the EU. Within the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), the European Central Bank should directly oversee some 150 biggest financial institutions of the EU from September 2014. Additional supervision in the form of tougher stress tests will be provided by the European Banking Authority.

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