The nation’s financial watchdog has found suspected cases of illegal short selling at seven more global investment banks worth 155-point-six billion won, or 114-point-four million U.S. dollars.

The Financial Supervisory Service(FSS) disclosed on Monday the interim results of its inspection into 14 global investment banks, following its initial findings from last year.
 
In November last year, the FSS fined a combined 26-point-five billion won on BNP Paribas and HSBC for illegal short selling while filing a complaint against the two firms with the prosecution.

The FSS said it is also investigating five additional investment banks, adding it plans to wrap up the review soon. 

Short selling is an investment tool that hedges portfolio risk against sudden decline in the price of a stock or security. However, some investors tend to abuse the system, trading with borrowed shares that they intend to buy back and return later for less money, netting the difference between the price they sold and re-bought it for.