野村トップ辞任 証券会社はタガを締め直せ

The Yomiuri Shimbun (Jul. 29, 2012)
Securities houses must tighten up discipline to end insider trading
野村トップ辞任　証券会社はタガを締め直せ（7月28日付・読売社説）

When a major securities company deliberately tramples on the fairness of the market, it should be severely condemned. The resignation of its top executives is a matter of course.
　大手証券が自ら市場の公正を踏みにじった責任は重い。トップ辞任は当然である。

Kenichi Watanabe, chief executive officer of Nomura Holdings Inc., and another senior executive of the firm will step down at the end of this month to take responsibility for insider trading scandals involving capital increases through public offerings by listed companies.
　上場企業の公募増資を巡るインサイダー取引問題を受け、野村ホールディングスの渡部賢一グループ最高経営責任者（ＣＥＯ）ら経営首脳２人が今月末、引責辞任する。

In late June, Nomura revealed the findings of in-house investigations into the leaks of internal information to clients of its brokerage unit and also announced a set of steps to prevent the recurrence of insider trading. At that time, Watanabe said he would have his pay cut by half as a disciplinary measure, but he denied any intention to resign.
　野村が６月末に社内調査結果と当面の再発防止策を発表した際、渡部氏は自らの処分を減給にとどめ、辞任を否定していた。

It seems he subsequently found a reshuffle of the company's executive lineup unavoidable as major firms moved to desert Nomura, as shown by its exclusion from an increasing number of lists of key coordinators for planned stock and other securities offerings. His decision is rather belated.
　その後、株の売り出しなどの主幹事業務から、野村が外されるなど顧客離れが広がり、経営体制の刷新を迫られたのだろう。遅きに失した感は否めない。

Koji Nagai, serving as president of Nomura Securities Co. under the umbrella of Nomura Holdings since April this year, will take over as chief executive from Watanabe, while continuing to hold his current post as head of the nation's biggest securities house.
　後任のＣＥＯは、今年４月から傘下の野村証券で社長を務める永井浩二氏が兼務する。

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Excessive drive for profits

In a press conference on Thursday, Nagai stated he will "renew this company from its foundation." To be true to his words, he should thoroughly push ahead with the company's internal reforms to prevent a repeat of insider trading.
　永井氏は記者会見で「野村を根底から作り替える」と述べた。言葉通り社内改革を進め、再発防止策を徹底してもらいたい。

This will be the first time in 15 years for Nomura's top post to be assumed by someone from the company's equities sales unit. He must do his utmost to tighten the lax discipline among the firm's sales employees, whose business ethics have eroded due to an excessive drive for profits.
　野村では１５年ぶりに営業出身のトップだ。永井氏は、収益偏重でモラルの低下した営業現場のタガを締め直す責任がある。

Cases of insider trading, such as those in which confidential information on planned capital increases is abused, have been revealed one after another this year. Nomura alone accounts for three such cases, the greatest incidence of such wrongdoing.
　今年は増資情報を悪用したインサイダー取引の摘発が相次ぎ、このうち野村からの情報漏洩(ろうえい)は３件と最も多かった。

It has been disclosed that Nomura's sales unit in charge of institutional investors obtained confidential information about planned public offerings from the corporate affairs unit handling corporate clients' capital increase plans. The sales unit clandestinely provided certain investors with the information as part of the brokerage's "quick-eared tips." A wall that was supposed to have been built to block flows of information between the two units existed in name only.
　機関投資家などを担当する営業部門が、企業増資を扱う法人部門から未公開情報を入手し、「早耳情報」として投資家に提供していた。本来、両部門の間に情報を遮断する壁が築かれているはずなのに、有名無実になっていた。

The act of helping large-lot contract clients profit by providing them with share information not available to the public is certain to work to the detriment of ordinary investors, including individual investors, by distorting the impartiality of the market. Such conduct is unforgivable.
　大口顧客を未公開情報でもうけさせれば、個人など一般投資家に不利益を与え、市場の公平性をゆがめる。許されない行為だ。

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Toughen insider rules

A follow-up in-house probe by Nomura revealed there may have been other cases in which its employees leaked information. This makes us suspect insider irregularities at Nomura were a matter of routine. The full truth of the matter must be exposed.
　野村の追加調査では、摘発された不正取引以外に複数の情報漏洩の可能性が指摘されている。恒常的に行われていたのではないか。全容を解明する必要がある。

Cases in which information leaks led to insider trading have also been disclosed at other brokerages, such as SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. (formerly Nikko Cordial Securities Inc.) and Daiwa Securities Co.
　インサイダー取引につながった情報漏れは、ＳＭＢＣ日興証券（旧日興コーディアル証券）や大和証券などでも発覚した。

Strong suspicion has therefore arisen that provision of capital increase information to large-lot investors, major clients of securities houses, has long been a common business practice at major brokerages.
得意先の大口投資家への増資情報の提供は、大手証券の営業慣行としてまかり通っていた疑いがある。

The entire securities business world, including the Japan Securities Dealers Association, must buckle down to the task of preventing new instances of insider trading, through such steps as strengthening the association's self-imposed insider rules.
　日本証券業協会の自主ルール強化など、証券界を挙げて再発防止に取り組むべきだ。

The government, for its part, is considering revising the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law to raise the punitive surcharges against insider trading and to punish the individuals who leak information.
　政府は、金融商品取引法を改正し、インサイダー取引に対する課徴金の引き上げや、情報を漏らした側も処罰の対象とすることなどを検討している。

To remove the stigma on the Japanese market as "an insider-trading paradise," penalties against insider transactions should be quickly toughened.
　日本市場は「インサイダー天国」という汚名を返上するため、罰則の強化を急がねばならない。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 28, 2012)
（2012年7月28日05時15分  読売新聞）