HSBC has been acquitted by a South Korean court of charges related to illegal short-selling, marking a setback for the government’s attempts to regulate stock trading practices. The ruling was confirmed by multiple sources, including Reuters, which reported that the court cleared HSBC of violating short-selling rules. In a related development, South Korea's financial regulators have begun imposing fines on several major investment banks, including JPMorgan, UBS, Nomura, and Morgan Stanley, for allegedly engaging in naked short-selling. This follows an indictment of three traders for similar offenses. The financial supervisory authorities are expected to announce additional sanctions against these banks soon.