Tvangslukning af positioner. Indsigelse om, at lukning af alle positioner var unødig for at overholde marginkrav, om fejl i handelssystem og om vildledning.
| Sagsnummer: | 134/2020 |
| Dato: | 08-02-2022 |
| Ankenævn: | Vibeke Rønne, Jesper Claus Christensen, Mette Lindekvist Højsgaard, Lisbeth Baastrup Burgaard, Kim Korup Eriksen. |
| Klageemne: |
Terminsforretninger - lukning
|
| Ledetekst: | Tvangslukning af positioner. Indsigelse om, at lukning af alle positioner var unødig for at overholde marginkrav, om fejl i handelssystem og om vildledning. |
| Indklagede: | Saxo Bank |
| Øvrige oplysninger: | |
| Senere dom: | |
| Pengeinstitutter |
Indledning
Denne sag vedrører tvangslukning af positioner, herunder indsigelse om, at lukning af alle positioner var unødig for at overholde marginkrav, om fejl i handelssystem og om vildledning.
Sagens omstændigheder
Klageren, der har bopæl i Sverige, var kunde i Saxo Bank, hvor han via bankens handelsplatform investerede i CDF’er (Contract for Difference) og futures.
Af bankens almindelige forretningsbetingelser af 3. januar 2018 fremgik blandt andet:
“…
26. MARGIN REQUIREMENT AND MARGIN POSITIONS
…
26.3 The Margin Requirement applies from opening a Margin Position and throughout the term of the Margin Position. It is the Client's responsibility to continuously ensure that sufficient Collateral is available on the Account at any time to meet the Margin Requirement. Saxo Bank may, but is not required to, notify the Client if the Margin Requirement is not met (margin call). …
…
26.8 If the Client fails at any time to have provided sufficient Collateral to meet the Margin Requirement, other deposits or other sums due under these Terms, Saxo Bank may close any and all Contracts and Margin Positions upon notice to the Client and apply any proceeds thereof towards the payment of any amounts owed by the Client to Saxo Bank. Saxo Bank may in its discretion close all or some of the Client's Contracts and Margin Positions. Saxo Bank can use this right to close Contracts and Margin Positions even if the Client takes steps to reduce the size of open Contracts or Margin Positions or to transfer sufficient funds to Saxo Bank without assuming any liability towards the Client. …
…”
Banken har fremlagt en udskrift, der viser marginkald pr. mail til klageren og pop-up beskeder om marginkald perioden 18. marts 2020 klokken 16.44.01 - 22. marts 2020 klokken 23.08.47. Teksten i de marginkald, der blev sendt pr. mail, var følgende:
”Dear [klageren] Please be advised that you are now utilizing […]% of your available margin for trading purposes. Note that failure to meet prevailing margin requirements may result in your positions being closed without further notice. For personal accounts, a transfer of funds can be made using a credit card issued in a country approved by Saxo Bank, provided your account is authorized for credit / debit card funding: […]. Alternatively, you can fund via an international bank transfer. However, please be advised that for a transfer of funds to take effect the funds will need to be registered as fully booked on your account. If you have any questions to this e-mail, please do not hesitate to contact your Account Executive, or contact Service Center […].”
I perioden 18. marts 2020 klokken 16.44.01 - 20. marts 2020 klokken 15.01.14 blev der sendt 12 marginkald pr. mail til klageren og 97 pop-up beskeder om marginkald. Klagerens margin var i perioden udnyttet 75 % - 82,1%.
Banken sendte en mail til klageren med overskriften ”New margin rates from March 2020”. Det under sagen fremlagte eksemplar af mailen er dateret ”tors 19 marts 17.04”. Af mailen fremgik blandt andet:
”…
This Friday, 20 March 2020 at 15:00 GMT, we will increase margin rates on selected CFDs on indices, expiring CFDs and re-rate a number of stocks in accordance with prevailing market conditions.
These margin rates will remain in effect until further notice as we continue to moniter the ongoing extraordinary market conditions.
What will the margin rates be?
You can see the margin in the Upcoming Margin and Collateral Changes section in your account, by clicking on Account then Other. If you hold positions scheduled for upcoming changes, you can preview the impact on your account by using the Margin Monitor toll available in the account toolbar (Account Summery in SaxoTraderPRO).
…”
Den 21. marts 2020, som var en lørdag, var der ingen marginkald.
Næstfølgende marginkald var søndag den 22. marts 2020 pr. mail og pop-up klokken 22.22.16, hvor marginen var udnyttet 90,2 % og pr. mail og pop-up klokken 22.38.30, hvor marginen var udnyttet 91,8 %. Samme aften klokken 23.08.47, meddelte banken pr. mail og pop-up, at marginudnyttelsen var 100,1 %. Af mailen fremgik:
”Dear [klageren], Due to insufficient margin collateral funds on your account, we have now commenced the closing down of open margin positions on your account. Note that any exchange based positions will be closed during the operating hours of the related exchange. Please refer to your "Account Summary" for the current account balance and your "Activity Log" for details on the initiated closing of positions. If you have any questions to this e-mail, please do not hesitate to contact your Account Executive, or contact Service Center […]”
Klageren har fremlagt en e-mail med samme tekst fra banken med datering den 23. marts 2020 klokken 00.08.
Klagerens positioner blev tvangslukket af banken, hvorved der blev realiseret et tab for klageren. Klageren gjorde indsigelse mod lukningen.
I en e-mail af 24. marts 2020 anførte klageren:
”Monday night at 00:08 you send me a mail that my margin utilization is 100,1%. Thereafter you immediately sell all positions in the market, there was no chance to react to insert more money (I've been a client for many years and always injected money when needed). Also, when 100% solvency was reached, you continued selling even if the margin requirement was reestablished. No further notice than the mail attached below.
The handling of this situation was not taking care of the customers best interest. Also a few weeks ago, you sold illiquid Platinum puts for way below market price to raise as little as USD 50 to an account that was already well back in balance. I demand that all trades on Monday March 23rd are canceled, or at least all except the first one that took the account back to balance. I do understand that it's your first responsibility to take care of the Saxobank solvency, but it has be done in a way that also takes the customers interest into account.”
Den 25. marts 2020 svarede banken blandt andet:
”…
When you chose to open the margin contracts, you entered into contracts entailing a gearing risk factor. Thus, you decided to take on a greater exposure than the value of the account held with Saxo Bank. The said contracts also impose a credit risk for Saxo Bank. The credit risk is controlled by the client´s obligation to maintain the margin requirement at all times.
Your obligation to uphold the margin requirement is clearly stated in the General business Terms, which you accepted on becoming a client: [26.3]
Also, our General Business Terms clearly states that Saxo Bank is allowed to close your positions, should you fail to meet the margin requirements: [bankens almindelige forretningsbetingelser punkt 26.8]
…
Already on 18 March you received several margin calls informing you that failure to meet prevailing margin requirements may result in your positions being closed without further notice.
Your activity log shows that you saw the margin calls and also that you received several margin calls on 19 March 2020 and 20 March 2020 until you were stopped out on 22 March 2020.
Since you chose to not act on any of the margin calls you received, you accepted the risk of being stopped out.
Saxo Bank does not profit on its clients losing money. Overall Saxo Bank is running a fully hedged orderbook why we generally have no interest in our clients losing money or being stopped out.
Based on the above we unfortunately cannot accommodate your request to cancel the trades.
…”
Ved e-mail samme dag, den 25. marts 2020, til banken anførte klageren:
”Thanks for your reply. However I'm sorry to see that it's incorrect. I made deposits march 16th, march 17th, twice march 18th and sold shares on march 19th. Your claim that I did not react to margin calls I received when I sold shares and deposited cash is incorrect. I cannot accept a reply letter based on incorrect information, and I cannot trust that you really have done an investigation into the situation or fulfill your requirement to take the interest of the client into account. Thus, my claim to cancel the trades remain, at least those that were in excess of necessary for protecting Saxo.
In your letter you also say that you may sell some or all of the margin positions if that is required to protect Saxo's claim on the client. But you did sell more than required, thus after ensuring that the account had sufficient funds you continued selling. The silver futures were sold 60 to 90 minutes after the CFD and at that time the accounts was well within the limits. Thus, those sales were initiated at a later point in time and not necessary to ensure Saxo's claims on me.
You also do not reply to my comment that the margin changes were not published at the place on the website where it was supposted to be according to your mail March 18th. The lack of information where you told me to look was clearly misleading. Please see photos from your mail and your website posted below:
[Skærmbillede af mailen med overskriften ”New margin rates from March 2020” og skærmbilleder, der viser sort skærm ved åbning af ”Upcoming Margin and Collateral Changes”]
You pointed clients in your mail to look for upcoming margin changes at a place on your website that was empty from this information. Thus you misslead clients.
Please look at the situation again and come back with correct information and do a proper investigation. The fact that you try to bluff and also not answer questions is not acceptable. Nor is it acceptable that you sold more than necessary and that it happend with a delay implying that it was a new order coming in later. Thus my claim remains.
Den 27. marts 2020 svarede banken:
”You did not react sufficiently to the margin calls. If you had, you would not have been stopped out. It is your responsibility to maintain the margin requirements at all times.
The stop out is an automated process that initiates closing of all relevant positions immediately when you breach the margin requirements. There is no guarantee of execution at the same time as it will always depend on the market, liquidity etc. As you were informed in an email of 24 March 2020, the margin-server does not take into consideration that when selling some of your portfolio, you will go below 100% and then stop there.
In relation to the margin changes not being published at the place on the website where it was supposed to, you have already received a response from [navn] on 24 March informing you that in case you experience a black screen where no information is available, you can always call or email us as we have staff working around the clock from offices spread throughout the entire world who can help you with this.
We maintain our decision and cannot accommodate your request to cancel the trades.”
Parternes påstande
Den 9. april 2020 indgav klageren en klage til Ankenævnet over Saxo Bank med følgende påstand:
“I want the trades done on March 23rd to be canceled, less a reasonable amount of trades that Saxo can prove was necessary to get the margin utilization back down to a reasonable level of 75-80%. If that is not possible, I want cash compensation of SEK 994 000 less a deduction for trades that would have been necessary to get the margin utilization down to 75-80%.”
Saxo Bank har nedlagt påstand om frifindelse.
Parternes argumenter
Klageren har blandt andet anført, at banken uberettiget lukkede hans positioner og derved realiserede et betydeligt tab.
Bankens mail om ”Upcoming Margin and Collateral Changes” var vildledende, da han ved at følge instruksen i mailen ikke kunne se nogen marginændringer og derfor troede, at der ikke var nogen ændringer. Der var tilsyneladende tale om en fejl i bankens system. Han havde ikke grund til at tro, at der var en fejl, og havde derfor heller ikke anledning til at kontakte banken.
Marginkaldet, der førte til lukning, blev sendt om natten.
De to gange tidligere, hvor hans engagement var blevet tvangslukket, havde marginudnyttelsen væsentligt oversteget 100,1%, men ved lukningen den 23. marts 2020 nåede marginudnyttelsen sandsynligvis slet ikke op på 100 %.
Banken burde have begrænset lukningen til, at marginkravet blev overholdt, hvorved også hans tab var blevet begrænset.
Banken burde i hvert fald have undladt at lukke hans futures, da dette skete 60-90 minutter efter, at CFDerne var lukket, og således på et tidpunkt, hvor marginkravet var overholdt.
Saxo Bank har blandt andet anført, at lukningen skete som følge af, at klagerens marginforbrug overskred 100%. Bankens lukkeprocedure er en automatisk proces, der lukker alle marginpositioner. Banken laver ikke en vurdering på vegne kunden af hvilke positioner, der bør lukkes. Tidpunktet for lukning af den enkelte position beroede på markedet.
Klageren modtog mange marginkald og havde rig mulighed for at nedbringe sin margin eller kontakte banken.
Der stod i marginkaldene, at klagerens positioner ville blive lukket uden yderligere varsel, hvis klageren ikke overholdt marginkravene. Det fremgår også af bankens almindelige forretningsbetingelser, at banken har ret til at lukke en kundes positioner, hvis ikke han/hun overholder marginkravene. Derudover er der flere steder på bankens hjemmeside information om margin.
Klageren havde to gange tidligere fået sine positioner tvangslukket og var således fuldt ud klar over konsekvensen, hvis marginkravet ikke var opfyldt.
Klagerens tab er alene forårsaget af klagerens egne handlinger. Banken var ikke ansvarlig for udviklingen på markedet og dermed heller ikke tidspunktet for, at klagerens positioner blev lukket.
Klagerens tab kan ikke tilskrives bankens handelsplatform, eller at banken har handlet ansvarspådragende i relation til de af klageren foretagne handler.
Der var var ikke fejl på systemet den 19. marts 2020. Hvis klageren ikke kunne følge marginændringerne via sin platform, kan det bero på klagerens eget udstyr. Klageren blev under alle omstændigheder informeret via marginkaldene, ligesom klageren havde mulighed for at kontakte banken.
Ankenævnets bemærkninger
Klageren var kunde i Saxo Bank, hvor han via bankens handelsplatform investerede i CDF’er (Contract for Difference) og futures.
Ankenævnet har ikke grundlag for at tilsidesætte bankens beregning af klagerens marginudnyttelse. Ankenævnet finder derfor, at banken var berettiget til at tvangslukke klagerens positioner som meddelt ved e-mail af 22. marts 2020 klokken 23.08.47.
Banken var endvidere i medfør af de almindelige forretningsbetingelser punkt 26.8 berettiget til at lukke alle klagerens positioner og havde således ikke pligt til at begrænse lukningen til en del af klagerens positioner med henblik på at reducere omfanget, hvormed klagerens tab blev realiseret.
Ankenævnet finder det heller ikke godtgjort, at banken som følge af vildledning eller på andet grundlag er erstatningsansvarlig over for klageren.
Klageren får herefter ikke medhold i klagen.
Ankenævnets afgørelse
Klageren får ikke medhold i klagen.