Some reasons to say goodbye to email and excel
Managing insider under the UK and EU Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) involves keeping meticulous records of all individuals who have access to inside information. This can quickly become complex, and while Excel had been the go to tool, it is insufficient for several reasons:
- Security: Excel files can be relatively easy to access or manipulate without proper security measures in place. MAR requires that insider lists be kept confidential, which might be compromised with basic Excel security features.
- Audit Trails: Excel lacks sophisticated audit trails that record every access and change to the document. For compliance purposes, it’s crucial to have detailed logs that demonstrate who accessed what information and when.
- Version Control: When a list is saved on Excel instead of a creating a new list with a track of the changes, the list becomes non-compliant as versioning is an important part of MAR. Maintaining multiple versions of an insider list can be challenging with Excel, especially when multiple people need to update the list simultaneously. Without proper version control, there’s a risk of discrepancies and errors.
- Shared Workflow: All of those accessing the Excel list will also need to have access to emails etc to ensure that acknowledgments are received. This is also a problem if the person leaves the company.
- Complexity and Error-Prone: As insider lists grow and become more complex, managing them in Excel can lead to human errors, such as incorrect data entry, accidental deletions, or misalignment of data fields.
- Compliance Features: Excel does not offer specialized compliance features such as automatic reminders for when to update or review lists, nor does it provide templates or standard formats that comply with MAR requirements.
- Storage: Insider Lists must be kept for a period of 5 years. Employee departures and server relocations can put this at risk.
For these reasons, many companies opt for specialized compliance software designed for managing insider lists. These tools often provide:
Enhanced security measures
Such as encrypted databases that are accessible only to authorized users.
Automated audit trails
Automatically tracking who made what changes and when.
Realt-time collaboration
Allowing multiple users to update lists simultaneously with changes being tracked and synced in real time.
Compliance-specific features
Including automatic notifications for review periods, digital acknowledgments by insiders, and templates that meet regulatory standards.
These software solutions help ensure that companies meet the stringent requirements set by MAR and other regulatory frameworks, reducing the risk of non-compliance penalties and enhancing the integrity of sensitive information management.
InsiderList's platform manages all of these requirements and more. Click here to find out more.
