Japanese securities firms face an inspection by the industry association into how they comply with insider rules after Nomura Holdings Inc found it breached laws governing the handling of nonpublic information.
The Japan Securities Dealers Association’s (JSDA) new chief pledged to examine how the firms train and educate branch managers — who have dual roles as investment bankers and retail brokerage chiefs — to ensure they do not share confidential corporate information with sales staff.
JSDA chief executive officer Shigeharu Suzuki said the audit idea was prompted by a Bloomberg News report last month that Nomura found a former branch manager mishandled private information that a company it took public was considering a stock split.
The brokerage, Japan’s biggest, later informed the Financial Services Agency of the violation and outlined steps to improve how it handles corporate details.
“Accidents can occur any time because branch chiefs manage both corporate and retail operations and they can do whatever they want if they’re malicious,” Suzuki, a former Daiwa Securities Group Inc chairman, said in an interview in Tokyo last week. “Therefore, how to maintain discipline is extremely important and we need to check how they act once they become insiders.”
Japanese securities law bans brokerage employees from sharing nonpublic information that could impact investors’ behavior. The restrictions apply especially to interactions between investment bankers and other staff.
JSDA works as a self-regulator and representative of the securities industry. Its watchdog role encompasses rulemaking, enforcement, inspection and disciplinary actions.
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