South Korea fines Credit Suisse for illegal stock short selling

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's financial regulator imposed record high fines on two subsidiaries of the former Credit Suisse group for stock short-selling violations, the regulator said on Wednesday.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) decided to impose fines of 16.9 billion won ($12.17 million) and 10.2 billion won on Credit Suisse AG, currently UBS AG, and Credit Suisse Singapore Ltd, respectively, it said in a statement.

Credit Suisse AG conducted naked short-selling trades worth 60.3 billion won from April 7, 2021 to June 9, 2022, and Credit Suisse Singapore Ltd. carried out such trades worth 35.3 billion won from Nov. 29, 2021 to June 9, 2022, the FSC said.

UBS, which took over Credit Suisse last year, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Naked short-selling of stocks, in which an investor sells shares without first borrowing them or determining they can be borrowed, is banned by the Capital Markets Act in South Korea.

Last month, South Korea decided to extend a market-wide ban on short-selling of stocks through the first quarter of 2025, to develop a system to control illicit trading practices.

($1 = 1,388.7600 won)

(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Miral Fahmy)