The EU has taken a historic step to introduce regulation to prevent speculation by banks and hedge funds driving up food prices and exacerbating the global hunger crisis. The limits to curb speculation on food prices were agreed on 14 January 2014 following more than three years campaigning by [the] anti-poverty charity...World Development Movement (WDM). The new controls will place a limit on the number of food contracts that banks and other finance...[T]he UK government's opposition to tough controls has resulted in serious loopholes in the regulation...[WDM] is urging the European regulator ESMA [European Securities and Markets Authority] to ensure that the new rules are implemented effectively, and not watered down...by industry lobbying...The new rules on food speculation are part of a major piece of European financial reform, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive...[refers also to Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley].