Immunity for City whistleblowers?

Last Modified: 28 Mar 2008
Source: ITN

City whistleblowers could be offered immunity from prosecution, Chancellor Alistair Darling has indicated.

The move is part of plans to beef up the UK's financial watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), and give it US-style powers in the wake of last week's slump in a major bank's share price amid claims of market manipulation.

A London-based hedge fund allegedly circulated rumours about UK companies, including Britain's biggest mortgage lender HBOS, in a bid to make money when their share prices fell.

Mr Darling told the Guardian: "I can't allow us to get into a situation where people quite deliberately manipulate markets for personal gain and with the potential to destabilise the financial system.

"We have a duty to ensure we have clean and efficient markets. We will come down hard on people manipulating the system. People are getting away with it and the time has come for us to start looking at it again.

"If a handful of people are up to no good we have to make sure the authorities have the tools to do the job."

FSA investigators will reportedly be given the "specified prosecutor" status already enjoyed by tax officials, the Serious Fraud Office and the director of public prosecutions.

A spokeswoman for the FSA, which has asked for the powers, welcomed the move, part of a package of measures designed to tackle the present worldwide period of uncertainty.

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