Credit Suisse says struck security deal with "Flash Crash" suspect

By Lionel Laurent

LONDON (Reuters) - Credit Suisse UK had a security agreement with Nav Sarao Futures, the company of the man arrested in London over his alleged role in the May 2010 "flash crash", a spokesman for the Swiss bank said on Wednesday.

This was the first confirmation of an external institution providing financing to Nav Sarao, who is fighting extradition from Britain to face accusations he gamed the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the largest U.S. futures market, using custom-made software that contributed to the brief 2010 crash.

"A charge was created and registered in May 2010 in favour of CSUK which related to a Security Agreement," the Credit Suisse spokesman said, citing regulatory filings in emailed comments to Reuters. "This is a standard banking arrangement."

Regulatory filings seen by Reuters did not provide details about the underlying collateral of the agreement but included a broad list of possible assets such as shares or property.

The Credit Suisse spokesman said the agreement was not a mortgage and Nav Sarao is not a client of the bank in Britain.

He added that the bank could not comment further for reasons of confidentiality.

(Writing by Francesco Canepa; Editing by Mark Heinrich)