The Financial Conduct Authority found examples of possible insider dealing in 21.9% of the activity it monitored in 2020, up from 17.5% in the previous year.

It follows warnings from the watchdog's enforcement chief that there had been a dramatic increase in online scams and fraud during the pandemic as people spent more time on the internet. Mark Steward, the Financial Conduct Authority’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, also told Financial News in early 2020 that the regulator was bracing for an uptick in market abuse cases as a result of the virus crisis.