Citic Securities admits to vastly overstating April-Sept equity swaps

Mainland brokerage Citic Securities admitted Wednesday to incorrect reporting that resulted in overstating total equity swap transactions between April and September during the height of China’s stock market volatility, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing an emailed statement from the company. The statement came a day after the Securities Association of China claimed it had in October discovered a “massive error” in regulatory filings on swaps by Citic that overstated the figure for the April-September period as RMB1.063 trillion (US$166.46 billion), or 26 times its actual size of around RMB40 billion. Citic cited computer “system upgrades” as the reason for the incorrect reporting.