Insider Trading in Europe: How Disclosure Works and What to Track
European insider trading disclosure is public and legally mandated - but fragmented across six national regulators, three languages, and multiple formats. This guide explains how it works, what data is available, and how to use it for research.
What is insider trading disclosure in Europe?
In the European Union and UK, insider trading disclosure is governed by the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) - EU Regulation 596/2014. MAR requires that persons discharging managerial responsibilities (PDMRs) - typically executives, directors, and senior managers - notify their company and the relevant national regulator whenever they transact in the company's shares or related financial instruments.
The notification must be made within three business days of the transaction. The company then publishes the disclosure publicly. These disclosures are technically called PDMR notifications, though they are often referred to as "insider trading disclosures" in colloquial usage - a term that, in this context, describes legal and required disclosures, not illegal insider trading.
The five European regulators Disclosyr tracks
The AMF publishes PDMR notifications for French-listed companies. Data covers executives of CAC 40 and broader Euronext Paris listings. AMF filings are published on the AMF website and include transaction details, amounts, and the nature of the instrument.
BaFin collects and publishes director dealings (Eigengeschäfte von Führungspersonen) for German-listed issuers. Coverage includes DAX, MDAX, and SDAX companies. BaFin publishes these in a searchable database that Disclosyr ingests daily.
The AFM publishes insider transaction notifications for Dutch-listed issuers, including ASML, RELX, and other AEX constituents. AFM data is particularly valuable for tracking activity at European technology and semiconductor companies.
FSMA collects PDMR notifications for Belgian-listed issuers including KBC Group, UCB, and AB InBev. Belgium is an undertracked market - most US-focused tools miss it entirely.
Post-Brexit, the UK has maintained its own MAR-equivalent rules. The FCA publishes director dealings for UK-listed companies including Shell, HSBC, Unilever, and AstraZeneca. FCA data is one of the richest in Europe by volume.
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Why European insider data is fragmented
Despite MAR creating a single regulatory framework, there is no pan-European database for PDMR notifications. Each national regulator maintains its own database, in its own format, often in its national language. BaFin publishes in German. AMF in French. FSMA in French and Dutch. The FCA publishes in English, but uses a different format from the EU regulators.
This fragmentation means that investors and analysts who want to track European insider activity comprehensively need to monitor five (or more) separate databases, parse multiple languages and formats, and normalise the data themselves. Most institutional data providers either ignore European MAR data entirely or charge significant premiums for it.
Disclosyr was built specifically to solve this problem. We ingest directly from each national regulator, normalise the data into a unified schema, and make it searchable alongside US data in a single feed.
What European insider data can and cannot tell you
European PDMR disclosures can tell you: who bought or sold, how much, when the trade occurred, and when it was disclosed. They can also tell you the nature of the transaction (open-market purchase, inheritance, gift, option exercise) and sometimes the price.
What they cannot tell you is why the insider transacted. An executive selling shares may be diversifying, settling a tax obligation, or buying a house - not necessarily signalling negative views on the company. Similarly, a purchase may be required by a compensation plan rather than reflecting discretionary conviction.
This is why Disclosyr attempts to classify transaction types and signal open-market discretionary purchases separately from compensation events, option exercises, and other non-discretionary activity. Open-market buys are generally considered the highest-quality signal.
How to track European insider transactions with Disclosyr
Disclosyr aggregates European insider disclosures into a single, searchable feed. You can filter by country, company, insider type, transaction size, and signal type. The insider leaderboard ranks insiders by their historical performance across all markets, including EU and US.
Country-specific pages let you explore all insider activity for a particular market:
Disclaimer: Disclosyr provides public disclosure data and analytics for research purposes only. Nothing on this page constitutes investment advice, a recommendation, or a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Past insider performance does not guarantee future results. Always consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.