The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission recommended Wednesday to the finance minister that punitive action be taken against Nikko Securities Co. and Daiwa Securities Co. for compensating a "sokaiya" corporate extortionist for his stock losses.
Similar action was taken against industry leader Nomura Securities Co. in July. Nomura was banned by the Finance Ministry from certain business operations, such as stock-related dealer transactions, including trading securities index futures and securities options futures, for 21 weeks.
Observers expect the administrative sanctions against Nikko and Daiwa, likely due by the end of the month, to be similar to those against Nomura. Both Nikko and Daiwa were accused by the securities watchdog of violating the Securities and Exchange Law by setting up illegal discretionary accounts and offering loss compensation to the sokaiya, Ryuichi Koike, who was also the key figure in the Nomura case.