Swiss Bank Threatens to Sue NASDAQ Over Facebook IPO

jfruh writes "On the day of the Facebook IPO, the NASDAQ's trading systems suffered multiple failures and couldn't confirm buy orders for several hours. Big banks buying shares for their funds and customers placed multiple orders as a result, and bought more Facebook stock than they intended to as a result. NASDAQ has agreed to set up a fund to compensate them for their losses, but apparently this isn't enough for Swiss bank UBS, which is threatening legal action."

Comments

legal action because it is falling?

[HaaPoo]

if the price was going up, would they be returning the stock for a refund?

What I don't understand is...

[CheshireDragon]

Why did anyone think this was going to be a good stock?
I assume none of the share buyers or anyone that was involved ever had or seen a FB account.

Market Glitches

[DukeWeber]

These are getting to be fairly frequent events. See http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidleinweber/2012/08/01/another-tech-glitch-roils-markets-how-simulation-could-help/ for comments on the problems this morning, and how traders might be able to build their own early warning systems

Re:LOL

[AK Marc]

No, I want $1000 dollars of FB. If that's 40 shares at the time I place the order and 20 shares at the time the order is processed 4 hours later because Nasdaq screws up, I get 40 shares and a bill for $2000. It's not about trying the order 10 times because it doesn't confirm, but that you buy shares, not $$$, so if the price changes in 4 hours on IPO day, you will get screwed. And price will *always* change on IPO day.

USB has it's own legal problems

[Required Snark]

USB has legal problems that are far more serious them NASDAQ's inability to make timely trades. I can't help but wonder if this suit is partly an attempt to distract people from how much trouble USB is facing.

USB, along with Barkley's and RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) are all under investigation for rigging LIBOR. This is potentially the largest currency fraud in the history of the world. Literally 100 of TRILLIONS of US dollars may have been influenced by rigging interest rates.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-07-28/news/32906786_1_libor-global-benchmark-interest-rates-credit-card-rates

Soon, the trading had crossed to the euro rate markets, according to the settlement documents filed in the Barclays investigation. And by 2007, traders at RBS and UBS were seeking to influence the yen rate market, according to documents filed in 2011 in Singapore's High Court and in Canada's Ontario Superior Court.

Traders at Barclays are believed to have participated in manipulating the rate for the dollar and the rate for the euro known as Euribor, according to documents filed in the Barclays settlement last month.

RBS and UBS traders are a focus of the global investigation because of their alleged involvement in seeking to influence yen-denominated rates.

Two RBS traders in London, Brent Davies and Will Hall, are alleged to have agreed to help a trader at UBS, Thomas Hayes, to manipulate yen Libor, according to court documents filed by the Canadian Competition Bureau.

So USB getting press about how unfair NASDAQ is acting could be an attempt at a smokescreen while they deal with their own problems. It's been reported that these banks are willing to do almost anything to settle with regulators because they are terrified of the potential liability if any more information comes out. Bankruptcy is not out of the question, and neither is jail time.

One can only hope that this time these evil bastards finally get some small measure of what they deserve.