McDouall Stuart fined $83,000 for NZX breaches
The Wellington broker will not appeal, saying the costs would be too great.
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Hawke’s Bay
Wellington sharebroking firm McDouall Stuart Securities has been fined $83,000 for breaching stock exchange market rules.
The fine and public censure from the NZX disciplinary committee relates to five breaches of NZX participant rules between January and March this year.
The breaches relate to the firm’s failure to have enough liquid capital, as set out by a waiver granted to the firm.
The largest, with a fine of $30,000, was for failing to hold enough client assets on trust at all times and for not having notice in writing from its bank about the status of an account held by an American client Charles Schwab.
McDouall Stuart said the breaches related to the very rules that saw the firm resign from the accreditation category as a NZX trading and settlement firm in mid March 2010.
McDouall Stuart directors said in a statement they did not agree with four of the five breaches and the penalties were “manifestly extreme."
They added: “The directors nonetheless, have decided that there is a reasonable likelihood that costs would exceed the penalties imposed to continue to fight these allegations, and therefore have taken a commercially pragmatic approach of moving forward.”
NBR staff
Wed, 22 Dec 2010
Wed, 22 Dec 2010
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McDouall Stuart fined $83,000 for NZX breaches
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