WASHINGTON, Feb 6: US securities regulators have opened a wide-ranging probe into whether Wall Street bank employees are leaking tips on big share trades to their favoured clients in a bid to curry favour, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The report, citing Wall Street executives, said the probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission appeared to be targeting possible insider trading or the illegal use of market-moving non-public information.

It said the probe could also be focusing on information flows between Wall Street banks and their hedge fund clients.

The SEC and industry regulator NASD have pressed numerous cases in recent years against Wall Street brokers and their firms for manipulating stock trades, processing trades after the stock market has officially closed, and for not keeping proper trading records.

The SEC could not be reached for comment by AFP at the time of reporting.

The Times report said the investigation is examining whether banks tip their valued clients to potential deals, enabling the clients to execute trades at another bank, and making a paper trail harder to follow.

The SEC sent letters last month to a group of large banks including Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Deutsche Bank, according to the report.

One Wall Street source told the Times that regulators were seeking a wide range of information, including all stock and option trading data, on the banks' accounts and their customers' accounts, for the last two weeks of September.

The final weeks of September mark the close of the third-quarter earnings season, and the report suggested that period could be a focus because traders might feel a pressure to puff up their returns.—AFP