SECURITIES

U.S. Reportedly Probing Daiwa: U.S. regulators reportedly are looking into whether the Los Angeles branch of Daiwa Securities faked trading profits for more than three years, the latest such allegations to hit a big Japanese firm. The review comes after Daiwa Securities America informed the authorities in June that a vice president booked excessive profits from stocks and bonds sold to two large U.S. customers, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported. The phony profits amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars between September 1988 and December 1991, but other false profits alleged before 1988 added up to considerably more, the newspaper said, citing an internal Daiwa memo dated August 1992. The document was purportedly written by the vice president, a Japanese national who was not identified and is now based in Tokyo. Daiwa Securities voluntarily informed the Securities and Exchange Commission about the allegations, Yomiuri Shimbun reported.