Deutsche Bank has been fined GBP6.4 million by the UK Financial Services Authority for market misconduct in handling shares, the third largest penalty ever handed out by the agency.
The breaches arose from transactions involving shares in Scania, the Swedish truck manufacturer and Swiss pharmaceutical group Cytos Biotechnology. The former head of equity trading for the bank, David Maslen, was individually fined GBP350,000 for ordering an employee to buy a large block of Scania shares on the open market to prop up the share price while looking for potential investors.
In the second transaction, Deutsche failed to ensure that a trader followed internal procedures while trading Cytos shares. Hector Sants, FSA managing director for wholesale business, said: The FSA has previously expressed a determination to act against institutional market misconduct and Deutsche’s failure is an example of the type of conduct which the FSA will act against in its efforts to improve the overall quality of markets.
Deutsche said that the regulation breaches were isolated instances involving a small number of individuals, and regretted the infringements.