FINRA Fines Firm for Inaccurate TRACE Reporting

A firm settled FINRA charges for reporting inaccuracies related to municipal and TRACE-eligible securities transactions.

According to the AWC, during the relevant period, the firm reported inaccurate execution times on approximately 53,000 TRACE transactions, with 399 of those also reported late. FINRA also determined that the firm inaccurately reported execution times for approximately 57,000 municipal securities transactions and reported 123 of these trades late. FINRA concluded that these errors stemmed from a technological issue and an incorrect interpretation of trade execution times. FINRA said that for a majority of these transactions, the execution time was inaccurate by one second.

FINRA determined that the firm violated FINRA Rules 6730 ("Transaction Reporting"), 3110 ("Supervision") and 2010 ("Standards of Commercial Honor and Principles of Trade") as well as MSRB Rules G-14 ("Reports of Sales or Purchases") and G-27 ("Supervision").

To settle the charges, the firm agreed to (i) a censure and (ii) pay a $180,000 fine, with $90,000 pertaining to the MSRB violations.