Wall Street's self-funded regulator said on Monday it fined Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch unit a total of $6 million over violations of certain short-selling rules designed to prevent market manipulation. In a short sale, a trader borrows stock and then sells it at a lower price to turn a profit. If one of the parties in a transaction does not have enough cash to pay for the position, or does not own the underlying assets that are to be delivered, the result is a "fail-to-deliver position" that must be closed out by borrowing or buying securities of like kind and quantity. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) said that from September 2008 to July 2012, Merrill Lynch Professional Clearing Corp did not attempt to close out certain fail-to-deliver positions, and lacked systems and procedures in to address the close-out requirements during much of that time. The regulator also blasted Merrill's supervisory systems and procedures. It said that from September 2008
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