Facts of manipulation in the market for on-exchange trading in certain options established
The Bank of Russia established facts of market manipulation in on-exchange trading for margin put options on USD/RUB exchange rate futures contract in the period from 11 March to 18 April 2019.
These facts were revealed as a result of the investigation of compliance with Federal Law No.
Transactions with regard to which the facts of manipulation were established were conducted with the following options (hereinafter, jointly referred to as the Options):
| Si-3.19M210319PA64000, | Si-6.19M180419PA63500, | Si-6.19M180419PA64000, |
| Si-3.19M210319PA64250, | Si-6.19M180419PA63000, | Si-6.19M180419PA64500, |
| Si-3.19M210319PA64500, | Si-6.19M180419PA63750, | Si-6.19M180419PA63250. |
Trading in the Options was conducted between PJSC Bank ZENIT (TIN 7729405872) and Vladimir N. Shabalov who is an employee of the company. V. Shabalov was authorised to conduct transactions with financial derivatives in favour of PJSC Bank ZENIT. Besides, he conducted transactions with the Options in his own brokerage account.
Almost all transactions concluded between PJSC Bank ZENIT and V. Shabalov in the period under review had the signs of significant deviations in the volume of trading in the Options.
According to the findings of the investigation, these transactions qualify as market manipulation according to Clause 2 of Part 1 of Article 5 of the Federal Law. It follows from the above that PJSC Bank ZENIT and V. Shabalov violated the ban established by Part 2 of Article 6 of the Federal Law.
The Bank of Russia has sent orders to PJSC Bank ZENIT and V. Shabalov to cease and desist from similar violations in the future.
Moreover, the Bank of Russia decided to cancel the qualification certificates of a financial market specialist issued to V. Shabalov.
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