The Oslo Stock Exchange has been made aware of incidents over the last year where unauthorised persons have gained access to financial reports from the web sites of stock exchange listed companies prior to the publication of the financial reports through stock exchange notice. On this basis, the Exchange has sent a letter to all issuers with listed financial instruments.The companies are responsible for handling the financial information with due care. The Exchange finds it necessary to repeat the importance of the relevant provisions and expectations to the companies, in order to avoid future similar cases.
In a letter dated 15 June 2016 regarding the same topic, the Exchange communicated certain expectations, which are still applicable. The Exchange highlights that when a company uploads inside information on their web site with insufficient security against attempts of unauthorised access, this is not considered as due care in handling of inside information. All companies are encouraged to evaluate their routines in this respect. The Exchange expects that inside information was handled with due care and with sufficient security when uploaded on their internet sites before publication.
The Oslo Stock Exchange finds it serious that certain market participants have gained unauthorised access to financial information before the rest of the market. A well-functioning capital market is characterized by the market participants having trust in that everyone gets access to the financial information from the listed companies at the same time. The incidents known to the Exchange are not identical, however the companies involved have all been criticised by the Exchange for failure to handle financial information with due care by the Exchange, and been reported to the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority (Nw. Finanstilsynet).
For more information, please see letter from the Oslo Stock Exchange dated 18 January 2019.
