(Provisional Translation)
December 6, 2002
Financial Services Agency

An administrative action against
BNP PARIBAS Securities (Japan) Limited, Tokyo Branch

1. Acts of conducting a series of securities transactions intended to create artificial market prices which does not reflect the actual state of the market

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) conducted an inspection of BNP PARIBAS Securities (Japan) Limited, Tokyo Branch (''the Branch'' hereafter), and found the following violation of the Securities and Exchange Law (''the Law'' hereafter). The SESC recommended the Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency (FSA) to take a disciplinary action against the Branch on November 29, 2002open new window.

(1) On May 17, 2001, the Branch placed, on its own account, a large amount of the sell order of a stock at the limited price for the purpose of making the closing price of the stock lower than the ''strike price''. As the result, the price went down toward the close. The Branch was one of the arranger of the Exchangeable Bond (''the EB'' hereafter) for the stock and had a contract with the issuer of the EB to sell a certain amount of the stock at a certain price when the closing price of the stock was below ''strike price''.
(2) The acts above are found to violate the Article 4 (iii) of the Ordinance of the Cabinet Office Concerning the Regulations, etc. of Conducts of Securities Companies and the Article 42 (1) (ix) of the Law applied based on the Article 14 (1) of the Law on Foreign Securities Firms.

2. The administrative action against the Branch

On the basis of the above finding, the FSA issued the following business improvement administrative order to the Branch today:

(1) Suspend business operation
 
- Suspend all the stock trading on its own account from December 9, 2002 to December 20, 2002 (10 business days) except the execution of transactions contracted on or before December 6.
(2) Improve its compliance with the law
 
1) Strengthen the internal control system, secure strict compliance by the directors and staff, make preventive measures against recurrence of the above-mentioned violation and clarify locus of responsibility.
2) Submit a written report to the FSA on the implementation of the measures above by January 6, 2003.

For further information, please contact with the following:

Securities Business Division
Supervisory Bureau
FSA, JAPAN (Tel:03-3506-6000)
Deputy Director : Atsushi SASAGAWA(ex.3370)
Section Chief : Yoshitomo ISHII (ex.3356)

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