CLUMSY typing cost a Japanese bank at least £128 million [around $224 million] and staff their Christmas bonuses yesterday, after a trader mistakenly sold 600,000 more shares than he should have. The trader at Mizuho Securities, who has not been named, fell foul of what is known in financial circles as âfat finger syndromeâ where a dealer types incorrect details into his computer. He wanted to sell one share in a new telecoms company called J Com, for 600,000 yen (about £3,000) [$5284]. Unfortunately, the order went through as a sale of 600,000 shares at 1 yen each.That error alone would have been bad enough, but the consequences were much worse because 600,000 shares represents more than 40 times the total number issued by the company, and the vast discrepancy effectively created a technical shortage of shares, worth about £1.6 billion [$13.3 million].
Despite Mizuhoâs attempts to rectify the mistake, some estimates put the possible financial damage to the firm at about 60 billion yen [about $499 million] â a figure that may be big enough to destabilise the securities arm of what is one of the four largest financial groups in the world.
The slip caused immediate shockwaves in the Tokyo market as traders tried to guess which firm had made the mistake. Fearing the impact, traders sold shares in all Japanese broking houses and the sell-off led to the value of the Nikkei 225 falling 2 per cent. It was only later that Mizuho admitted that one of its traders had made the error. If Mizuho has to accept the loss, it may have to sell many of its stockholdings to raise the money, creating further pressure on Japanese stocks.
Mizuho said it was discussing with the Tokyo stock exchange how to deal with the matter. There is a chance that Mizuho will persuade the Tokyo exchange, which is under pressure for allowing the obviously mistaken trade to go ahead, to have it cancelled.
As if the hapless trader was not unpopular enough, the firm also cancelled its end-of-year party, scheduled for last night.