The Financial Services Authority, the UK financial regulator, has fined Bear Stearns £40,000 (€58,021) for failing to report transactions in contracts for differences. The regulator said it was the first action for a breach of this type.

In a statement, the FSA said Bear Stearns had "inadvertently failed to report any of its contracts for differences transactions to the FSA since August 2001 which is when the firm first began to undertake contracts for differences transactions business."