The investigation into possible irregularities in the bond purchase entered a new phase this Thursday with the citation of the first stock companies (Alyc). After submitting written reports on operations and customers, two large agencies of the market has met the authorities in the last few hours at the headquarters of the National Securities Commission (CNV), as confirmed by official sources.
The body led by Sebastian Negri asked market agents about the forts volume increase operated with dollar securities, before and after Sergio Massa’s announcement. On Tuesday, January 17, one day before the announcement of the buyback of up to $1,000 of government debt, 265 million nominal GD30 bonds were traded against MEP, up from an average of 137 million for the month.
The NVC plan is to summon two Alycs a day with attention to own portfolio transactions of the top 10 brokerage firms. According to the ranking drawn up by ByMA in December 2022, this group represented the 40% of the monthly volume operated in bonds, with a movement of approximately 2.3 trillion dollars.
The ranking of public securities operators at the end of 2002, by volume traded, was as follows according to BYMA:
Allaria Ledesma (7.06%); PP investments (5.50%); Centauro Joint Stock Company (4.97%); Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Argentina) (4.61%); Galician titles (3.80%); Alfy Investments (3.67%); Neix (2.92%); Equity securities balance (2.49%); Aurum Values (2.29%) and TCPG values AS2.25%).
Officials want to know the reasons for the operations and investment decisions. One hypothesis is that there was a leak of information and that it was used to buy securities in advance. The other suspect concerns a possible manipulation to generate a “rush” on financial dollars (CCl and MEP) through the purchase and sale of bonds.
“They are seeing GD30 deals and have also inquired about surety trades. Volumes were extraordinarily very high, and more for a holiday out, and surety rates were sky high in dollars, out of the ordinary, will have to see how much they can investigate,” market sources say.
The surety is a tool for financing investments with bonds, shares or other types of assets as collateral. And it was targeted by deals that took dollar collateral, paying rates as high as 8 and 20%, higher than the previous 1% per annum. The Central Bank has taken measures in the last few hours to discourage pressure on CCL and MEP, including guarantees in pesos.
The CNV also appeared before the case it is dealing with before court no. 6 of the Municipality. According to the authorities, the Justice could lift the securities secret to obtain documentation and testimony from the agency, measure that has been applied in cases of AFJP seeding fraud and others involving stockbrokers in 2000 and 2001. Since 2012, the The CNV can share information with the Central Bank and the AFIP, but they must keep it secret.
On Thursday, however, the lawyer Alejandro Kalbermatten ratified and expanded the judicial complaint initiated by the tweet of the former Finance Minister, Alfonso Prat Gay, which suggested the possible purchase of bonds by officials.
So far, the open minutes of the order from Massa to the CNV have served to collect written information from stockbrokers, to which have been added the face-to-face hearings of the last few hours. The idea was to make an initial assessment this Thursday, but the authorities maintain that “there is still a need to sum up”. The next step will be to call customers who have participated in “unusual” movements.
Source: Clarin
