The head of South Korea’s financial regulator said Thursday it has detected “circumstances” of naked short selling by foreign investment banks.

Lee Bok-hyun, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), told reporters that the FSS will soon announce details of the illegal short selling activities.

Lee declined to elaborate further, but the amount of the naked short selling, which is illegal in South Korea, may be some tens of billions of won.

Lee’s remarks came after financial authorities imposed a combined fine of 26.5 billion won (US$19.8 million) on two foreign investment banks — BNP Paribas and HSBC — late last month over alleged naked short selling between 2021 and 2022.

“(Investigations) on most cases are nearly in final stages,” Lee told reporters, adding the FSS will “soon explain the outcome of the investigations to the people and also reflect them on the ongoing move to reform the stock short selling system.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency