Nyse fines Van der Moolen Specialists $3.5m
Van der Moolen Holding N.V. (NYSE:VDM; Amsterdam:VDMN) announced today that Van der Moolen Specialists USA, LLC (VDMS), a 75% owned subsidiary of Van der Moolen Holding N.V., has entered into a settlement with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) resulting from the NYSE's investigation into certain broker/dealer stock lending practices of VDMS's stock loan department, focusing on transactions involving finders.
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VDMS closed its stock loan department, which was not one of its core businesses, in February 2005.
VDMS consented to findings by an NYSE Hearing Officer that employees of its stock loan department caused it to engage in irregular stock loan transactions and related violations, including that VDMS failed to reasonably supervise the activities of its stock loan department. VDMS also consented to the imposition of a penalty of censure and a fine of $3.5 million.
This settlement will negatively impact the second quarter 2006 net result of Van der Moolen Holding N.V. as determined under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by approximately EUR 1.0 million, since part of the settlement already was recognized as a provision in our 2005 IFRS Annual Report issued March 16th 2006.
In our US GAAP financial statements issued on Form 20-F for the year ending 2005 as filed with the SEC on June 23, 2006 the financial impact was fully taken into account.
The NYSE Hearing Board Decision took into consideration, among other things, that VDMS took corrective and remedial actions including voluntarily closing the stock loan department completely when the conduct at issue was revealed, and terminating employees responsible for running and supervising the stock loan department. The NYSE Hearing Board Decision also took into consideration that VDMS gave "full, candid and proactive cooperation" to the NYSE during the course of its investigation, and that all the VDMS employees involved in the alleged improper activities of the stock loan department or who had any supervisory responsibility for the stock loan department were either discharged or have retired from the Firm.