Insider trading is one of the practices that (directly or indirectly) lead to a host of problems for example inaccurate stock market prices, high inflation, reduced public investor confidence, misrepresentation and non disclosure of material facts relating to securities and financial instruments. Again it reduces efficiency in the affected companies and eventually leads to economic underperformance. The researcher observed that the South African insider trading regulatory framework has some gaps and flaws which need to be adequately addressed to ensure efficient and stable financial markets. Therefore, the aim of this research is to provide a clear roadmap for an effective, efficient, adequate and internationally competitive insider trading regulatory framework in South Africa. In order to achieve the above stated aim, the historical development of the regulation insider trading is critically analyzed. The effectiveness and adequacy of the Insider Trading Act, 135 of 1998 is also discussed. Furthermore, the prohibition of insider trading under Securities Services Act, 36 of 2004 is explored and analyzed to investigate its adequacy. The role of the Financial Services Board, the Courts and the Directorate for Market Abuse is also scrutinized extensively. Moreover, a comparative analysis is undertaken of the regulation of insider trading in other jurisdictions of United States of America, Canada and Australia. This is done to investigate any lessons that can be learnt or adopted from these jurisdictions. The researcher strongly contends that having the best insider trading laws on paper alone will not cure the insider trading problem. What is required are adequate laws that are enforced effectively in South African courts. Therefore an adequate insider trading regulatory framework must be put in place to improve the efficiency of South African financial markets, to maintain a stable economy, combat misrepresentation and non disclosure of material facts in transactions relating to securities. The researcher has attempted to state the law as at 31 August 2007.

M.Com. (International Accounting) / This minor dissertation investigates how the conflict in the classification of financial assets between IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement and IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements is being bridged in the financial statements of banks by reviewing the classification of financial assets in the statement of financial position, accounting policies and the notes to the financial statements. IAS 39 provides specific classifications for financial instruments, while IAS 1 provides a classification based on liquidity. The minor dissertation applied a quantitative content analysis of the annual financial statements of South African banks for the 2011 financial year. Companies in the sample selection were drawn from the FTSE/JSE classification of the Top 100 companies selected on their market capitalisation on 30 December 2011. Seven banks are included in the Top 100 companies. The minor dissertation found that the classification of financial assets as required in IAS 39 is not shown in the statement of financial position. The statement of financial position is based on the liquidity classification in IAS 1. In contrast, the accounting policies for financial instruments are based on the IAS 39 classification. The structure of the notes to the financial statements follows the classification in the statement of financial position. The minor dissertation further found that the conflict between the IAS 1 and IAS 39 classifications is bridged in the detail of the notes. Two methods are being used to bridge the conflict. The first method is to provide an IAS 39 reconciliation in each applicable note. In this reconciliation, the total amount of the note is allocated to an applicable IAS 39 classification. The second method is that the line items in the statement of financial position are allocated IAS 39 classifications in a table format. The table allocates the amount of individual assets and liabilities as identified in the statement of financial position in the categories required by IAS 39. Through using both Method 1 (reconciliation in each note) and Method 2 (a separate table based on the statement of financial position) the conflict between IAS 1 (liquidity classification) and IAS 39 is bridged. However, the IAS 39 classification is not directly obtainable from the primary financial statements. In the future, the study can be more comprehensively replicated in other countries and international research, as this exploratory research was only limited to seven banks in South Africa. Further research can also investigate entities other than banks to see how they bridge the conflict between IAS 1 and IAS 39. The review of the treatment of financial instruments resulted in the replacement of IAS 39 by IFRS 9 in November 2009. Future research of the new IFRS 9 classifications may assess how the conflict is being treated. In addition, further research can assess the quality of disclosure in the classification of financial assets/instruments in the financial statements of banks and other entities