NAB and UBS pay up for alleged market misdemeanours

National Australia Bank is voluntarily paying $2m after ASIC detected potential trading misconduct by a contractor.

Greg Wood, file photo: AFP

The corporate watchdog has penalised National Australia Bank and international bank UBS for what it describes as potential market misconduct.

Under a deal reached with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission after an investigation, NAB will voluntarily donate $2 million to fund public financial literacy programs.

The bank has also agreed to implement better monitoring and control systems for its share trading, with ASIC supervision of these systems for the next three years.

"The EU is a timely, effective way to ensure there is genuine change to monitoring and control systems," said ASIC commissioner Cathie Armour.

"ASIC will closely monitor the implementation of these changes to ensure they meet our expectations."

ASIC is continuing to investigate the conduct of a share market trading contractor hired by NAB - it says potential market misconduct by the trader's staff led to a spike in some share prices in October.

The regulator has also reached an agreement with the Australian arm of the Swiss bank UBS, which will donate $1 million to the financial literacy fund.

ASIC found UBS traders tried to manipulate a key benchmark measure of the interest rate at which banks lend each other cash, known as the Australian Bank Bill Swap Rate (BBSW).

UBS itself reported the suspected misconduct to ASIC in July 2012, and has since withdrawn from the panel of banks whose submissions determine the BBSW.