Credit Suisse settles with US regulators to pay $10 mln

Credit Suisse fined $10m for fraudulent trading activities. The Swiss bank has agreed to pay to resolve charges by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and New York attorney general (NYAG) Barbara Underwood that it mishandled customer orders in its now-shuttered retail execution services (RES) business.

The $10m settlement amount will be divided equally between the SEC and the NYAG: “The settlements require Credit Suisse to pay $5 million to the SEC and $5 million to the NYAG [state of New York Attorney General] for a total of $10 million,” the release said.

The penalty involves a now-defunct wholesale unit of Credit Swisse that executed orders by customers from smaller retail broker dealers.

SEC New York regional office director Marc Berger said: “Market makers that handle retail orders must be transparent with their customers about how orders will be executed and how the market maker will profit from their customers’ trades.

The SEC found that Credit Suisse routed trades differently for large investors over small retail investors, resulting in less favorable prices for small investors despite claiming otherwise.

The bank agreed to the settlement without admitting or refuting the allegations.

New York has been investigating electronic and high-frequency trading practices on Wall Street for several years.

Underwood, who became the state’s attorney general after her predecessor, Eric Schneiderman, resigned in May, said her office has recouped $130.5 million of penalties from four banks in connection with the investigations.