Armin S.

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Armin S. (full name unknown) is an independent securities dealer from Frankfurt am Main .

Life

Armin S. began his professional career as a stock trader at Westdeutsche Landesbank . He then moved to Citigroup , where he worked for 8 years.

He then went into business for himself and has been trading securities for his own account ever since. Armin S. compares his job with that of a used car dealer, where he constantly buys and sells securities and thus lives on the bid-ask spread (difference between purchase and sale price).

According to his own statement, Armin S. neither owns a car nor does he live in a condominium.

Lawsuit for 152 million euros

His name became known in Europe when he sued BNP Paribas for over 152 million euros - one of the largest civil lawsuits by a private person in Germany.

On May 28, 2016, the Focus published an article about a mistrade in which the BNP Paribas Arbitrage is said to be involved. The bank is said to have sold securities for 326,400 euros, the real value of which they subsequently put at 163 million euros. The bank should not have noticed the error for days; in the meantime, the BNP had even confirmed the price again. According to the magazine, however, a cancellation of the transaction would only have been possible until the next day due to the mistrade regulation. In the article, his lawyer is quoted as saying: "A bank that does not notice a mistake of this magnitude is acting with gross negligence and is therefore not worthy of protection".

This was followed by a guest contribution by Armin S. in the InvestorPlus magazine of the protection community of capital investors , in which Armin S. discusses the misconduct in risk management at the major bank .

On March 11, 2017, the French business newspaper Les Échos published an article entitled “Trader demands EUR 161 million from BNP Paribas”. The article was cited by a member of the European Banking Authority as an example of operational risk in the banking sector.

Bloomberg and Die Welt published an article on the case on May 23, 2017. In the meantime, BNP had confirmed the deal with the words “The trade was recorded and must be booked manually by our IT colleagues”, only to then declare it invalid after six days. Hans-Peter Burghof is quoted as saying “The bank has an obligation to conduct its business properly, and it may not have adequately fulfilled this”.

On July 5, 2017, Armin S. was quoted in a Focus-Online article as saying, "If it comes to 163 million euros, a major bank must immediately notice it," says Armin S., shaking his head. “This banker's arrogance pisses me off. They consider themselves the best and the brightest - which they often are - but as soon as something goes against them, they ignore you. "

On July 6, 2017, the article “Suddenly multimillionaire through a banking error” appeared on the front page of the FAZ's financial section, in which a spokesman for Deutsche Börse is quoted as saying “such a case as the one with 163 million euros would be with you noticed ". Why the error was not noticed in the bank's risk management remains open.

Michael Lusk published an article related to the case in 2017 entitled "Do banks' internal control system work?"

The Financial Times and FAZ published articles with further details in March 2018. It quotes from internal BNP documents and explains why the error was not noticed earlier: "As it turned out in the course of further research, a technical malfunction within the trading system from December 2nd, 2015 prevented all automated processing from this point in time concluded transactions in relation to secondary market transactions in structured products in the German market ”. The Financial Times estimates that 8,500 stores were affected in one week. Armin S. is quoted there with the words "I don't think it's fair if on the one hand, BNP wants to rely on statutory safeguard clauses but on the other hand they ignored all control-tasks imposed by the regulators - ECB, BaFin and AMF - for a whole week. "(" I don't think it is fair if BNP wants to invoke legal safeguards on the one hand, but on the other hand disregards all control mechanisms prescribed by regulators - ECB, BaFin and AMF - for a whole week. " )

On January 11, 2019, it was announced that Armin S had also filed a lawsuit in France for EUR 152 million.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Andreas Niesmann: Bank error in his favor. In: Focus.de. June 5, 2016, accessed March 18, 2017 .
  2. ^ A b Jean-Philippe Lacour: Un trader réclame 161 millions d'euros à BNP Paribas. In: lesechos.fr. March 11, 2017, accessed March 18, 2017 (French).
  3. ↑ Armin S .: Millionaire on paper. Experience report by Sdk member Armin S. (PDF; 5.0 MB) Schutzgemeinschaft der Kapitalanleger, September 1, 2016, accessed on March 18, 2017 .
  4. ^ Armin S: Armin S vs BNP. September 20, 2018, accessed January 11, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Christophe Nijdam: Voilà un exemple concret de ce qu'on appelle le risque "opérationnel" dans le secteur bancaire. Twitter, March 11, 2017, accessed March 18, 2017 (French).
  6. ↑ Daytrader demands from BNP Paribas € 152 million due to price error. In: welt.de. Retrieved May 26, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Christoph Sackmann: This man earned 163 million euros overnight - but his bank does not pay. In: Focus.de. July 5, 2017. Retrieved July 11, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Christian Siedenbiedel: Suddenly multimillionaire by a bank error. In: faz.net. July 6, 2017. Retrieved July 11, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Do banks' internal control systems work? In: linkedin.com. July 31, 2017, accessed August 20, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Christian Siedenbiedel: Bank error in your favor. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. March 10, 2018, accessed March 17, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Caroline Binham: BNP Paribas failed to book trades in Germany for a week. In: ft.com. March 10, 2018, accessed March 17, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Karin Matussek: BNP Faces New Front in $ 188 Million 'Fat-Finger' Suit by Trader. In: Bloomberg. January 11, 2019, accessed January 11, 2019 .