Japan watchdog to recommend penalties on Nomura’s brokerage unit for alleged market manipulation, Yomiuri reports

Japan’s securities watchdog is expected to recommend imposing tens of millions of yen in penalties on Nomura Holding’s brokerage unit for alleged manipulation in the government bond futures market, the Yomiuri reported.

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission will make the recommendation to the banking regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), which hands out such punishments in Japan, the newspaper said in its report on Wednesday.

Nomura said it was not in a position to comment at this time but would take such allegations seriously including establishing the facts.

The FSA said in an email that it would hold a briefing on Wednesday afternoon regarding a recommendation to impose penalties, but it did not name Nomura or any other company and did not give any other details.

A dealer at Nomura, Japan largest brokerage firm, is suspected of manipulating the price of long-term government bond futures contracts in 2021 through a practice known as “spoofing”, the Yomiuri said, citing at least one source.

The trade involves illegally placing a large number of orders without intending to trade and then cancelling them, the Yomiuri said.

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission is targeting the company rather than the individual dealer as the dealer was a manager in Nomura’s global markets division, which trades the company’s own funds, the Yomiuri said.