Nomura Gets Biggest Fine in 12 Years For Insider Leaks

Nomura was fined $3.8m, the biggest penalty by the Japan Securities Dealers Association against any firm in 12 years, after employees leaked information on clients’ plans.

Bloomberg reports that Nomura Securities' domestic brokerage unit lacked internal controls to safeguard information on share sales it managed in 2010, the self-regulatory group for brokers said in a statement on its website Tuesday. The fine follows an August 3rd order by regulators that Tokyo-based Nomura, Japan’s biggest brokerage, improve compliance.

'The amount really isn’t that big compared with cases in the U.S.', said Takao Saga, a professor who studies the financial industry at Waseda University in Tokyo. 'There are still clouds hanging over the Japanese stock market as individual investors stay away and overseas investors think regulations are lax'.

Japanese politicians have urged that rules barring the government from imposing fines against companies that leak information be toughened. The Financial Services Agency is preparing legislation that would establish penalties for tipsters and impose stricter punishment for insider trading.

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Nomura Gets Biggest Fine in 12 Years by Japan Brokers Group

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