FCA imposes £34.3m fine on Goldman Sachs International over transaction reporting failures
The company has been found to have failed to provide accurate and timely reporting relating to 220.2 million transaction reports between November 2007 and March 2017.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has imposed a fine of £34.3 million on Goldman Sachs International (GSI) over failures to provide accurate and timely reporting relating to 220.2 million transaction reports between November 2007 and March 2017.
GSI failed to ensure it provided complete, accurate and timely information in relation to about 213.6 million reportable transactions. It also erroneously reported 6.6 million transactions to the FCA, which were not, in fact, reportable. Altogether, over a period of 9 and a half years, GSI made 220.2 million errors in its transaction reporting, thus violating FCA rules.
The FCA also found that GSI failed to take reasonable care to organise and control its affairs responsibly and effectively in respect of its transaction reporting. These failings related to aspects of GSI’s change management processes, its maintenance of the counterparty reference data used in its reporting and how it tested whether all the transactions it reported to the FCA were accurate and complete.
GSI agreed to resolve the case and, hence, qualified for a 30% discount in the overall penalty. Without this discount, the FCA would have imposed a financial penalty of £49,063,900.
In a similar move earlier this month, the FCA imposed a financial penalty of £27,599,400 on UBS AG over transaction reporting failures. UBS has been found to have failed to ensure it provided complete and accurate information in relation to approximately 86.67 million reportable transactions. It also erroneously reported 49.1 million transactions to the FCA, which were not, in fact, reportable. Altogether, over a period of nine and a half years, UBS made 135.8 million errors in its transaction reporting, in violation of FCA rules.
The list of firms fined by the FCA over MiFID transaction reporting breaches also includes: Merrill Lynch International (MLI), Deutsche Bank AG, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), James Sharp & Co, Plus500UK, City Index Limited, Société Générale, Commerzbank AG, Instinet Europe Limited, Getco Europe Limited, Credit Suisse and Barclays Capital Securities Limited and Barclays Bank Plc.
