Industry NewsThe European Commission (EC) has closed member states registries after it was reported that 475,000 credits had been stolen from the Czech registry. The effective cessation of all spot trading also prompted some exchanges to close, but trading in carbon futures was still witnessed.
This follows a number of other high profile fraud cases in the carbon market. The move has been described as a "transitional measure" by the EC while the security issues are investigated and dealt with. As such, the EC has stated it will be in place until at least 26 January 2011. Latest reports suggest the scale of the thefts across Europe could amount to €30 million.
The theft from the Czech registry came soon after Austria announced its systems saw an attempted hack, and reports of suspected security issues on the Romanian registry. As well as the EC ban on cross-Europe transfers, the French bourse Bluenext suspended trading in response to the concerns. ICE Futures Europe, Nasdaq OMX Commodities Europe and LCH.Clearnet reportedly followed suit. Previously, the carbon market had been rocked by incidents of VAT fraud, and more recently there had been issues over the transfer of EUAs and certain CERs created from the destruction of industrial gasses.
Commenting to press on the issue, the EC stated, "The incidents over the last weeks have underlined the urgent need for all registries to ensure that these measures are speedily implemented." It added, "The commission will make further announcements early next week and will work to ensure that this transitional measure can be lifted swiftly for all those registries with adequate security measures."