Russia sees rise in suspect securities trades by large banks

MOSCOW - Reuters

Office employees take a break near the skyscrapers of the "Moscow City" in Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 31, 2015. AP Photo

Russia’s central bank saw a rise in suspect securities trades involving large banks in 2014, but the banks themselves stopped the trades after discussions with the regulator, a senior central bank official said on Sept. 23.

“The most complex scheme was with depositories, trading companies. We saw a certain anomaly,” said Yury Polupanov, deputy head of the central bank’s financial monitoring and currency control department.

“Suddenly there was an upsurge in purchases of securities abroad. We started to investigate and saw a transit flow.”

“These deals involved large organizations, which value their reputation. ... With the majority of the organizations we’re finding an understanding,” Polupanov said.