In March 2009, UK securities regulators began to crack down on insider trading with the FSA’s first-ever criminal conviction of Christopher McQuoid, former general counsel of TTP Communications, and his father-in-law, James Melbourne. Also that month, the FSA’s CEO, Hector Sants, promised a new aggressive approach to enforcement in the UK. “There is a view that people are not frightened of the FSA,” he said. “I can assure you that this is a view I am determined to correct. People should be very frightened of the FSA.” Following that first conviction, the FSA (and now its successor agency, the FCA) has continued to pursue insider trading, and has obtained almost two dozen convictions as of the end of 2013.
