Article: SESC Proposes $1.9m Fine for Morgan Stanley MUFG over Market Manipulation

Article - Media

SESC Proposes $1.9m Fine for Morgan Stanley MUFG over Market Manipulation

Finance Magnates, 12 June 2016

Japan’s financial market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC), today recommended fining Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities for alleged market manipulation related to shares of railway operator, Seibu Holdings, according to a Reuters report.

SESC has recommended that the Financial Services Agency (FSA) imposes a penalty of ¥220 million ($1.9 million), as revealed in a statement posted on its website.

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Article: Royal Bank of Scotland fined £390 million for LIBOR failings

Article - Media, Publications

Royal Bank of Scotland fined £390 million for LIBOR failings

John Fitzsimons, 06 February 2013

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has been fined £390 million for its attempts at manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).

LIBOR is essentially the rate at which banks lend money to each other. Every day banks are required to submit their interbank borrowing rates confidentially to Thomson Reuters, which then works out LIBOR on behalf of the British Bankers’ Association. For more on LIBOR and why it matters, check out What is Libor?

An FSA investigation found that over a four year period between January 2006 and November 2010 employees of RBS engaged in all sorts of activities that would lead to incorrect LIBOR submissions. By lying about what its real interest rates were, RBS was in a position to manipulate the market, allowing its traders to cash in.

The FSA’s investigation found at least 219 documented requests for inappropriate submissions, with 21 individuals involved identified.

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Article: HSBC scandal further erodes credibility of UK banking industry

Article - Media, Publications

HSBC scandal further erodes credibility of UK banking industry

AFP, 22 July 2012

London: A scandal erupting at Europe’s biggest bank HSBC has added to concerns over the state of Britain’s financial sector amid the Barclays rate rigging affair and as the industry faces a major shake-up.

HSBC last week apologised and its head of compliance David Bagley resigned after US lawmakers accused the London-based bank of failing to apply anti-laundering rules, benefitting Iran, terrorists and drug dealers.

The HSBC affair follows hot on the heels of the Libor interest rate rigging scandal that has brought down top executives at Britain’s Barclays bank — most notably its chief executive Bob Diamond and chairman Marcus Agius.

Regulators are reportedly investigating HSBC, as well as Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale, over alleged manipulation of the Libor rate after Barclays was recently fined £290 million (Dh1.66 billion) over the affair.

Britain’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has said its Libor probe is looking at seven groups, which are not only British institutions.

Bank of England governor Mervyn King has meanwhile proposed that central bank governors and regulators discuss Libor reform at their upcoming meeting in Basel, Switzerland, on September 9.

Barclays has admitted attempting to manipulate the Libor and Euribor rates between 2005 and 2009.

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Article: Barclays guilty of market manipulation

Article - Media, Publications

Barclays guilty of market manipulation

moneyweek, 27 June 2012

Barclays Bank is to pay a 290 million pound fine following an investigation by UK and US regulators into manipulation of inter-bank lending rates.

The bank’s top executives, including Chief Executive Bob Diamond, have agreed to waive their bonuses this year as a result. City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), said Barclays’ regulation breaches were “serious, widespread and extended over a number of years”.

It accused the bank of having inadequate systems and controls in place until June 2010 and of failing to review its systems and controls at a number of appropriate points. Continue reading “Article: Barclays guilty of market manipulation”

Article:Short Selling in a Financial Crisis: The Regulation of Short Sales in the United Kingdom and the United States

Article - Academic

Short Selling in a Financial Crisis: The Regulation
of Short Sales in the United Kingdom and the
United States

Katherine McGavin

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business, 15 December 2010

In a well-regulated market with minimal risk of abuse, the liquidity
and information efficiency benefits of short selling far outweigh its
potential harm. Contrary to the recent hostility short sellers face from
market regulators and the popular press,’ short sellers in aggregate are
neither market villains nor agents of destruction. While a small minority of
short sellers have exploited lax regulation and inattentive enforcement of
anti-abuse rules to manipulate stock prices and earn substantial fees, these
rare episodes suggest that the world’s major capital markets need better
enforcement of existing rules and not new rules per se. The failure of
market regulators to prevent abuse and manipulation of stock prices by short sellers and curb naked short selling reflects a failure of enforcement,
not bad underlying policy.

PDF  (41 pages): Short Selling in a Financial Crisis: The Regulation
of Short Sales in the United Kingdom and the
United States

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