Bond trader fined for auction abuse over QE
EX-BOND trader Mark Stevenson was fined £662,000 and banned from the sector yesterday after the City watchdog found he had abused the market in a bid to profit from the Bank of England’s quantitative easing (QE) programme.
In October 2011 Stevenson bought up a large volume of illiquid gilts, so that he could push up the price in the market with the intention of selling the bonds to the Bank of England at a profit.
However, the Bank was suspicious of sharp price movements in the market and declined to buy any of the £1.2bn of gilts Stevenson was trying to offload.
He maintained he had spotted an opportunity in an undervalued bond and bought into it.
The trader was suspended from his job with Credit Suisse in October 2012 and left the bank in December 2013.