Morgan Stanley nears deal to pay as much as $300M to settle stock sales probe: report

Morgan Stanley is close to an agreement to pay $200 million to $300 million to settle a US investigation into its employees’ handling of big stock sales, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. The penalty will be divided between the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission and would not include any criminal charges against the bank, the report said citing people with knowledge of the situation.

The bank had disclosed in May it was in discussions with the SEC and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to resolve the probe. Block trading tends to increase during times of volatility as institutional investors re balance their portfolios. Broker dealers frequently buy and sell blocks of shares, either on behalf of clients or as part of a hedging strategy, which are large enough to move a company’s share price..