Staff at Australia’s version of the Office for National Statistics should be banned from short-term trading following an alleged insider-dealing scandal that has shocked the country’s financial establishment, a report urged today.
In May, an Australian Bureau of Statistics employee, Christopher Hill, 24, was arrested and charged, along with a National Australia Bank staff member Lukas Kamay, 26, over an alleged multi-million dollar conspiracy to profit on the foreign exchange markets by using advanced knowledge of official data releases by insider trading.
Official statistics on inflation, GDP and unemployment regularly move share and bond prices, currencies, and many futures markets when they are released.
An investigation into the ABS recommended trading bans at least on employees with access to market-sensitive data.
