WHILE it may not be a daily occurrence, it is with great frequency that the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) faxes local newspapers to announce reprimands and convictions for various types of trading malpractice.
One of the main reasons for this, of course, is that the public disgrace attached to being named in the newspapers for misdeeds should act as a deterrent to other unscrupulous dealers' representatives.
But these regular announcements of knuckle rapping and fines of unfit and improper registered intermediaries continue unabated.
News editors could be forgiven for believing that the public relations department at the SFC has a couple of stock press releases with spaces left open for the names of renegade brokers to be inserted and for the amounts they have been fined.
On Thursday, the securities watchdog announced that it had taken a range of actions against a number of securities dealers.
National Resources Securities and two of its dealers' representatives were reprimanded for malpractices related to short-selling. On the same day, four individuals were fined between $5,000 and $33,000 by the courts after pleading guilty to short-selling. Another floor trader had his registration suspended for three years for profiting at the expense of his clients.
