JPMorgan India Options Ban Suggests Faster Crackdown on Market Manipulation
India's crackdown on its massive equity derivatives market has claimed another Wall Street casualty. A unit of JPMorgan, Copthall Mauritius Investment, has been banned for allegedly manipulating prices.
The ban was issued just six days after the alleged violation and comes with a fine of roughly $384,000, combined with a Mumbai-based broker. This swift action is attributed to new tools that have made it easier to monitor and identify market manipulation.
Regulators are reining in risk in the market by introducing measures such as increased lot sizes, transaction taxes, and restrictions on lending to proprietary traders. These cooling measures appear to be having a noticeable effect, with turnover in equity derivatives falling 9% during the March-end financial year.