Natixis agrees to $2.8M CFTC fine for oversight failures

Natixis, a Paris-based global bank and swap dealer, will pay a $2.8 million fine to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to settle charges it failed to prevent rogue traders from submitting false and misleading entries on trades over five years.

Traders on Natixis’ New York-based interest rate derivatives desk (IRD desk) and equity derivatives flow and solution trading desk (FAST desk) mismarked their positions “for the purpose of either inflating profits and minimizing losses or to ‘smooth’ out returns,” from 2015-19, the CFTC said in a press release Tuesday. The agency said Natixis failed to properly monitor the activities of the traders, who were able to manipulate the firm’s internal recordkeeping and accounting system without being detected.

Natixis cooperated with the investigation, the CFTC noted, leading to a decreased fine.