China fines brokerage USD 85M for stock market chaos

One of China's biggest securities firms has been fined USD 85 million and four executives banned from the industry after computerised trading mistakes caused wild swings in Chinese stock prices.
State media said Chinese regulators today also ordered Everbright Securities to stop trading on its own account.
Everbright was blamed for wild swings in stock prices on August 23. Regulators said a design flaw in Everbright's computerised trading system caused it to submit a multibillion-dollar avalanche of mistaken orders. That caused prices of some stocks to surge by the maximum allowed daily limit of 10 per cent before falling back.

According to the news reports, the China Securities Regulatory Commission also said investors would be allowed to sue Everbright over losses blamed on the price swings.