Citigroup, Commonwealth Securities Limited, Credit Suisse Equities, Barclays Bank, J.P. Morgan Securities, BGC Partners and Euroz Securities Limited have all been subject to fines imposed by the Markets Disciplinary Panel, according to the latest Market Supervision report released by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
The report, covering the period from July to December, last year, also made clear that ASIC continued to hold concern about "problematic algorithms and the effect of high-frequency trading".
The regulator's report said that, in particular, wash trades (involving the one account executing both sides of a trade) were a significant obstacle to maintaining fair and orderly markets.
Commenting on the release of the Market Supervision report, ASIC deputy chairman Belinda Gibson said the regulator continued to strengthen investor confidence in the integrity of Australia's financial markets and that it had also significantly reduced the time taken to commence investigations into suspicious market conduct.
She said that of the 138 market matters referred to ASIC's enforcement team for investigation since the regulator assumed responsibility for market supervision in August 2010, 42 investigations had been made within 30 days of identifying the possible misconduct, and 90 were made in less than 60 days.
