The move against the unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., the country’s No. 2 lender, will be a blow to one of Japan’s biggest brokerages and its second-largest megabank.
Tokyo prosecutors intend to file market manipulation charges against SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., known in the industry as one of the “market gatekeepers,” along with its four high-ranking officials under arrest, sources said.
The four employees are suspected of trying to prevent a decrease in share prices for five individual stocks on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.