Sir Howard: Quits as FSA chief this week

The Sunday Times reported that the move could help the FSA dispel criticism that it has failed to do enough to tackle insider dealing - where investors illegally profit by trading on information before it is known to the market a as a whole.

According to the Sunday Times, the cases are expected to go before the courts or the FSA's own Regulatory Decisions Committee over the next three months.

"There are quite a lot of cases coming to fruition, " outgoing FSA chairman Howard Davies told the Sunday Times.

"The pipeline is going to disgorge soon, and there will be some fun for my successor."

The watchdog has launched several high-profile investigations into possible insider dealing in recent years, but has secured few convictions.

Suspicion

Stock market authorities are often alerted to possible insider dealing when a company's share price rises in the days leading up to an announcement that the firm has been approached by a potential buyer, or when the price falls ahead of a profit warning.

Last month, the watchdog signalled the start of a new get-tough policy by announcing plans to have suspected market abusers arrested by the City of London police - a power it had until then made no attempt to use.

But Mr Davies told the Sunday Times that insider dealing was not an endemic problem in London's financial markets.

"We are not talking about major industrial fraud," he said, adding that most cases involve "people at the margins of the market."

Mr Davies is due to step down at the end of this week.