Key Points
- India’s market regulator, SEBI, has accused Bank of America of improperly sharing confidential information.
- The allegations relate to a $180 million block trade in 2024. SEBI also claims the bank misled investigators about the leak.
- Bank of America is expected to seek a multimillion-dollar settlement without admitting liability.
- The bank initially denied the claims but later corrected the record after its own internal probe.
India’s market regulator, SEBI, has accused Bank of America of improperly sharing confidential information about a major stock deal and misleading investigators about it, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The accusations stem from a $180 million block trade of shares in the Indian asset manager Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC back in 2024.
SEBI claims that the bank’s deal team shared price-sensitive information with employees who were not directly involved in the transaction. This kind of non-public information can give some investors an unfair advantage, allowing them to profit from expected price moves. The practice is illegal in India, as it is in many other countries.
The regulator also alleges that Bank of America made false statements to its investigators when they first began investigating the leak. According to the report, SEBI believes the bank failed to have proper “guardrails” in place to prevent confidential information from being shared.
This isn’t the first time this issue has come up. The Wall Street Journal first reported on a whistleblower complaint about the leak back in 2024. At the time, a Bank of America spokesperson denied the claims, saying they had found no evidence of wrongdoing.
However, it seems the bank’s story has changed. According to the latest report, after initially telling SEBI that everything was above board, Bank of America conducted its own internal probe and later corrected the record. The bank reportedly disclosed records showing that people outside the official deal team had communicated with investors about the transaction.
Bank of America is now preparing a response to SEBI’s accusations and is expected to seek a settlement that could cost it millions of dollars. As is common in these cases, the bank will likely agree to the settlement without officially admitting or denying any wrongdoing.
