SG Americas agrees to pay $3.1m to settle SEC and FINRA charges
For more than five years, SG Americas made numerous deficient blue sheet submissions, largely due to undetected coding errors.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today announced settled charges against broker-dealer SG Americas Securities LLC for the company’s failures to provide complete and accurate securities trading information known as “blue sheet data.”
SG Americas has agreed to pay a $1.55 million civil penalty to resolve the SEC’s charges and separately agreed to pay $1.55 million to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to resolve parallel charges.
The SEC’s order states that, for more than five years, SG Americas made numerous deficient blue sheet submissions containing missing or inaccurate data, largely due to undetected coding errors. The order finds that SG Americas submitted missing or incorrect data for approximately 27.6 million transactions and had inadequate processes designed to validate the accuracy of its submissions.
The regulator notes that broker-dealers are required to provide trade data, which the SEC uses to carry out its enforcement and regulatory obligations, including investigations of insider trading and other fraudulent activity.
The SEC’s order concludes that SG Americas willfully violated the broker-dealer books and records and reporting provisions of the federal securities laws. The firm admitted the findings in the SEC’s cease and desist order and agreed to be censured and to pay a $1.55 million penalty.
The SEC’s order also states that SG Americas engaged in remedial efforts to address the cause of its deficient submissions, including retaining an outside consultant and adopting new policies and procedures for processing blue sheet requests.