ASIC bans former Westpac trader
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has banned a trader employed at Westpac Institutional Bank after he was found to have created fictitious trading entries and created a false document between 2009 and 2010.
Jeremy Kaviraj Nambiar, from St Ives, was hired to trade on financial products including foreign exchange and cross currency swaps on behalf of Westpac.
But the regulator found he entered more than 100 fictitious trading entries, including off-market trades that built a faÁade of profit.
Investigations found some of the fictitious entries were created to cover up a loss of more than $1 million in AUD/USD spot foreign exchange.
As a consequence of Nambiar’s actions, around $17.6 million was written off the income statement of Westpac’s financial statements for the period ending 31 March 2011.
Nambiar did not personally gain from the trades as they were internal to Westpac. No customers were affected.
Nambiar worked in the fixed income division of investment bank Nomura Australia between 2010 and 2011. In 2011, he created a false e-mail claiming to be from an external broker containing broker quotes.
It was found the e-mail could mislead Nomura staff.
Nomura can appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to review ASIC’s decision.
Recommended for you
Platinum Asset Management saw outflows of $1.65 billion in April, partly as a result of redemptions from institutional mandates and product rationalisation initiatives.
In this latest Meet the Manager profile, Money Management speaks with Ophir Asset Management co-chief executive Andrew Mitchell.
There were 25 winners at the first-ever Australian Wealth Management Awards, held in Sydney tonight.
Economists feel it is likely that the RBA would have discussed the possibility of a rate hike at yesterday’s board meeting, pushing the possibility of rate cuts further down the road.