CFTC v. Natixis (mismarking, 2022)

Settled

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In September 2022 the CFTC filed and settled charges against the bank and swap dealer Natixis for failing to supervise traders on two New York derivatives desks who mismarked positions, one to inflate profit and hide losses on the USD LIBOR forward curve by up to about $25 million, the other to smooth profit and loss. Natixis must pay a $2.8 million penalty, reduced for its cooperation.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$2.8m

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$2.8m

Alleged gain

—

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced this settled order on September 6, 2022 as release 8581-22. The respondent is Natixis (0 individuals, 1 entity); earlier versions of this record listed the respondent as "Swap Dealer" and as an individual. The charge is a failure to supervise, not mismarking by the bank itself.

The order finds that from January 2015 to at least April 2018 a trader on the Interest Rate Derivatives Desk submitted false or misleading end-of-day marks for the USD LIBOR forward curve, varying from observed broker mid prices and aligned with the desk's risk positions while staying within the limits of the controls meant to catch mismarking, to inflate unrealized profit and disguise large losses. At its peak in early 2018 the overstatement was about $25 million. Separately, between February 2017 and November 2019 traders on the Equity Derivatives Flow and Solution Trading Desk made manual booking adjustments to smooth profit and loss, understating it by over $6 million at the peak. The resulting books and records, counterparty mark disclosures, margin calculations and swap data reports were inaccurate.

Natixis agreed to a $2.8 million civil penalty, a cease-and-desist order and undertakings; the CFTC reduced the penalty for substantial cooperation and remediation.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Mismarking — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2022-09-06 CFTC release published

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• CFTC release
• CFTC order or complaint

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 20, 2026. submit a correction.