Just three of the 23 matters referred to the Securities Commission by the market supervision arm of the NZX during 2009 were taken any further by the Crown regulator.The NZX released details today of the performance of its market supervision during 2009 w
Just three of the 23 matters referred to the Securities Commission by the market supervision arm of the NZX during 2009 were taken any further by the Crown regulator.
The NZX released details today of the performance of its market supervision during 2009 with a summary rounding up details such as the number of announcements and referrals.
According to the data – which will be published every 12 months in the NZX annual report from this year – there were six matters refereed to the NZ Markets Disciplinary Tribunal for “serious breaches” of the NZX rules.
There were also 23 matters referred to the Securities Commission, although 10 were related to share price enquires which required no further action.
Of the remaining 13 matters – which dealt with issues such as insider trading – the Securities Commission have released “no further action” letters for 10 of them.
After processing more than 15,000 announcements, NZX Market Supervision implemented 70 trading halts and process 33 complaints regarding the conduct of listed issuers and market participants.
NZX’s referrals to the Securities Commission during 2009 included one regarding unusual trading in Allied Farmers shares in December and another for New Zealand Farming Systems Uruguay’s infamous “fudge this” comment, which the Securities Commission took no further action on after an initial inquiry.
Today’s release of the market supervision data follows long-running concerns over the potential conflicts of interest that could arise from the NZX’s role as both market regulator and participant.
The NZX said the decision to publish the data every year, rather than quarterly, was because there were “typically seasonal variations in key measurement areas, particularly around the company reporting seasons.
NZX had not responded to interview requests by time of publication.
