South Korea Fines 15 Bond Dealers 1.6 Trillion Won for Collusion
The regulator said 145 auctions involved direct yield or volume agreements, and seven firms were referred to investigators.
- On Wednesday, the Fair Trade Commission levied fines totaling 1.6 trillion won against 15 domestic brokerage firms and banks for colluding at government bond auctions over more than three years.
- Between January 2020 and June 2023, dealers exchanged bidding yields via phone calls and Telegram for 150 government bond auctions, reaching agreements on specific yields in 145 instances constituting bid rigging.
- The record penalty surpasses the 1.03 trillion won fine levied on Qualcomm in 2016, with seven companies facing referrals to the Serious Crime Investigation Agency and fines reaching 332.1 billion won and 242.7 billion won.
- Such collusion artificially raised South Korean bond yields, the Fair Trade Commission said, because government bonds serve as a benchmark for pricing financial products, ultimately wasting state funds and burdening the public.
- "Establishing appropriate prices in the government bond issuance market plays a key role in supporting the efficiency of the overall financial market," the FTC said, pledging to strictly enforce laws against future collusion.
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15 Articles
South Korea fines 15 bond dealers 1.6 trillion won for collusion
SEOUL, Nov 11 : South Korea's Fair Trade Commission said on Wednesday that the regulator levied fines totalling 1.6 trillion won ($1.2 billion) on 15 domestic brokerage firms and banks for colluding at government bond auctions for more than three years.The regulator said that from January 2020 to June 2023, t
Korea Fines Bond Dealers Record $1.2 Billion Over Collusion
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has decided to impose a record-breaking fine of approximately 1.6 trillion won on 15 primary dealers (PDs) suspected of colluding in the government bond bidding process for over three years, and to file criminal charges against seven of them. On the 11th, the FTC issued corrective orders and a total fine of 1,626,575,000,000 won for the collusive conduct of the 15 PDs.
15 Dealers in Treasury Bond Bid Collusion Fined up to 1.6 Trillion in history... 7 Companies Charged
(Sejong = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Soo Hyun = In the treasury bond bidding market issued by the government, they agreed on bid interest rates and volume for over 3 years, exchanged bid interest rate information, etc...
The Fair Trade Commission has imposed a record-breaking fine of 1.63 trillion won on 15 financial firms for colluding on interest rates and volumes during the government bond bidding process. The financial firms shared bidding information via messenger to drive up winning bid rates, thereby burdening the government's procurement costs. In response, the financial sector argues that this was a mandatory role for market facilitation and is consider…
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