Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission said Wednesday it has recommended a 21.8 million yen ($150,965) penalty on Nomura's (NMR) brokerage unit for allegedly manipulating the government bond futures market.
The regulator said the investigation revealed that in March 2021, a Nomura trader manipulated 10-year Japanese Government Bond, or JGB, futures contracts through a technique known as "layering" on the Osaka Exchange.
The watchdog said the manipulation allowed Nomura to purchase and sell 462 units of JGB futures at favorable prices while placing a large number of layered orders at different price levels.
Nomura said Wednesday that it takes "this matter very seriously" and that it has "been working to revise our JGB futures trading operations since these transactions occurred."