The MAS finds that Credit Suisse’s RMs had provided clients with inaccurate or incomplete post-trade discussion, resulting in them being charged higher spreads. Photo: Bloomberg

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has fined Credit Suisse AG (Credit Suisse) $3.9 million for its failure to prevent or detect misconduct by its relationship managers (RMs) in the Singapore branch.

The regulator says in a Dec 28 release that these RMs had provided clients with inaccurate or incomplete post-trade disclosures, resulting in clients being charged spreads which were above bilaterally agreed rates for 39 over-the-counter (OTC) bond transactions.

According to the MAS, these RMs had made false statements to their clients regarding the executed interbank prices and/or spreads charged; and/or omitted material information that the spreads charged were above the agreed rates for these 39 transactions.

“Investigations revealed that the bank had failed to put in place adequate controls, such as post-trade monitoring, to prevent or detect the RMs’ misconduct,” says MAS.

MAS notes that as part of the civil penalty settlement, Credit Suisse has separately compensated its affected clients.

“We will continue to engage the banks to improve their controls in this area and will not hesitate to take firm enforcement action against financial institutions found to have breached our laws,” says Ho Hern Shin, deputy managing director of MAS.