The Financial Services Agency is seeking stiffer penalties for people who leak information used for insider-trading, including prison terms, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg.
Individuals who provide tips for insider-traders to help them gain profits would face up to five years in prison and ¥5 million in fines, the FSA document shows. Institutions would be subject to fines of as much as ¥500 million.
The government is clamping down on insider-trading after regulators last year found that employees of brokerages, including Nomura Holdings Inc., gave tips on share offerings they managed. Under existing rules, only those who trade on nonpublic information can be imprisoned or fined.