LONDON: Britain’s financial watchdog said on Monday it had fined former Royal Bank of Scotland interest rate derivatives trader Neil Danziger £250,000 (SR1.27 million) and banned him from working in any regulated financial activity.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said in a statement it had found that between 2007 and 2010 Danziger, who traded products referenced to Japanese Yen Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) for RBS, was knowingly involved in the bank’s failure to observe proper standards of market conduct.
Danziger disputes the FCA’s findings and feels he is being “scapegoated for the systemic problems related to Libor,” his lawyer, Ben Rose, a partner at law firm Hickman and Rose, said.
However, the ex-trader is too emotionally and financially drained to fight further, Rose said in a statement, adding: “He leaves it to others, better resourced, to press the FCA for answers, hopeful that, one day, the real truth will come out.”
Danziger was dismissed by RBS over Libor-rigging at the end of 2011. The bank was fined £390 million by UK and US authorities for its part in the global scandal that also engulfed a number of the world’s other biggest banks.
“Proper standards of market conduct reflect the interests of the whole community in the well-being of our financial markets,” Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said on Monday.
“Mr Danziger’s reckless disregard of these standards has no place in the financial services industry.”
Libor underpins hundreds of trillions of dollars of transactions and is used to set rates on credit cards, student loans and mortgages.
The FCA said Danziger had routinely made requests to RBS’s primary submitters with the intention of benefitting the trading positions for which he and other derivatives traders were responsible, and took those positions into account when acting as a substitute submitter. It also said Danziger entered into 28 “wash trades” — risk-free trades, with the same party, in pairs that cancel each other and for which there was no legitimate commercial rationale — to facilitate payments to two broker firms for personal hospitality.
UK financial watchdog fines, bans former RBS Libor trader
UK financial watchdog fines, bans former RBS Libor trader
New Saudi draft project to regulate direct market entry of listed companies’ subsidiaries
RIYADH: The Saudi Capital Market Authority has launched a draft regulation for the direct listing of subsidiaries of companies already listed on the main market, inviting stakeholders to provide feedback over a 30-day period, according to a statement issued today.
The proposed framework aims to allow subsidiaries of main-market companies to list their shares directly on the main market without undergoing an initial public offering, thereby shortening timelines, streamlining procedures, and reducing the costs associated with listing on the Saudi stock market.
It also seeks to create more investment opportunities in the Saudi financial market, contributing to market depth and product diversification, while maintaining high levels of transparency and protecting investors’ rights.
The proposals enable the issuer and its financial advisor to share information about the company and its financial statements with a select group of potential investors before obtaining CMA approval for the share registration request, allowing them to assess their interest in a direct listing on the main market.
They also allow a specific group of licensed financial advisory firms to prepare research and financial reports, provided these are not published before CMA approval.
The proposed framework emphasizes the importance of proper disclosure by setting out requirements for registering shares on the main market, including submitting a registration document to the CMA.
It also specifies the information that must be included in the registration document, such as the method for determining the reference share price and the risks associated with this method.
Under the draft regulation, securities offering rules, ongoing obligations, and the CMA’s glossary of terms and regulations will be updated to allow this type of listing.
This approach is expected to bring multiple benefits, including maximizing the overall value of the main market with lower risk by listing companies that have greater knowledge and experience of market regulations, as well as deepening the market by increasing the number of listed companies across multiple sectors.
