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Tokyo Stock Exchange Imposed A Penalty On BNP PARIBAS Securities (Japan) Limited

Date 25/12/2002

TSE imposed a penalty on BNP PARIBAS Securities (Japan) Limited ( '' BNP PARIBAS Securities '') of JPY 14 million fine for act of making a series of transactions for the sale of a security to create an artificial market.

On May 17, 2001, BNP PARIBAS securities 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. BNP PARIBAS securities 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".

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 Securities and Exchange Law applied based on the Article 14 (1) of the Law on Foreign Securities Firms.