Financial Services Agency going after BNP Paribas

January 10, 2009
By Ken Worsley

Some stock market participants are still incensed by what they see as an act of betrayal by BNP Paribas Securities (Japan) Ltd., which negotiated a secret deal with Urban Corp. as part of the real estate developer’s fundraising activity.

On Wednesday, the brokerage submitted to the Financial Services Agency a business improvement plan outlining how it intends to revamp its internal controls and risk-management mechanisms. But to many domestic observers, BNP Paribas’ actions underscore the profit-driven business philosophy of foreign brokerages.

“What they did goes beyond what can be rectified with a business improvement order,” one market participant says — a view echoed by many others in the stock market.

After all we’ve seen over the past year, it’s almost surprising that BNP Paribas is still allowed to operate in Japan at all; after all, very little of the full story hits the media (then again, the full extent of FSA actions taken against more than one mega-bank three years ago were never even reported by the media)

Still, it seems all too convenient for the Japanese regulators and press club members to attribute a lack of trust in the markets to a single foreign bank.

Filed Under Banking