Apparently lapses in risk controls at the Merrill Lynch unit that led to market disruption in 15 stocks

Reuters report:

  • U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fined the bank $12.5 million
  • For violating its market access rule
  • This requires brokerages that give customers direct market access to have risk controls designed to stop erroneous or excessively large trades
  • Several exchanges announced a related $3 million fine
  • the bank was said to have allowed "sudden, unexplained swings in companies' stock prices between 2012 and 2014, including 99 percent drops in Anadarko Petroleum Corp (APC.N) and cloud security company Qualys Inc (QLYS.O) and a 3 percent decline in Google"
  • Bank of America did not admit wrongdoing

More at that link, above