Societe Generale Securities fined $2.53m for 33 market gatekeeper failures

Each order was placed within the last two minutes before market close, ASIC said.

Societe Generale Securities Australia has been fined $2.53m (A$3.88m) for failing to prevent suspicious orders from being placed on the electricity and wheat futures market.

SocGen breached market integrity rules by allowing two of its clients to place 33 suspicious orders between May 2023 and February 2024, according to an announcement by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).

Each order displayed characteristics of an intention to ‘mark the close’, meaning they were placed within the last two minutes before market close to influence the daily settlement price for the client’s benefit, ASIC said.

The Market Disciplinary Panel (MDP) said that SocGen should have suspected that the orders were submitted “with the intention of creating a false and misleading appearance in the market.”

ASIC said that this is its fifth enforcement action in 15 months relating to alleged manipulation in electricity and wheat futures on the ASX 24 Market.

The orders were reportedly placed during a volatile period in global energy and wheat markets caused by supply issues, including the Russia-Ukrainian War, it said.

(US$1 = A$1.53; as of 3 September 2025, from Morningstar via Google).