BofA’s Merrill fined $11m over short selling
Ben McLannahan
Financial Times, 1 June 2015
The Securities and Exchange Commission has fined Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit $11m for failing to keep proper records of stock available to borrow, after irregular trades were carried out over at least six years.
The case relates to short selling — or betting that the price of a stock will fall — in which investors such as hedge funds ask their brokers to find stock to borrow, which they then sell, hoping to buy it back later for less.
