<
p>Global wealth management firm Merrill Lynch International has received a £13.2 million fine as part of an FCA ruling upon the firm’s failure to correctly report millions of transactions.
The FCA issued a fine of £13,285,900 - a record for transaction reporting failures - against the company which specialises in global wealth management.
Merrill Lynch agreed to settle at an early stage of the FCA’s investigation, and as a result, earned a 30 per cent reduction on their fine. The firm would have received a £18,979,876 fine had they not settled.
This is the third time that the FCA has penalised MLI over transaction reporting failures.
Previously, the watchdog issued a Private Warning to the finance firm in 2002 and a fine of £150,000 later in 2006.
The most recent penalty was imposed on MLI after the regulator ruled that it had inaccurately reported as many as 35,034,810 transactions between November 2007 and November 2014.
Further to this, the firm was found to have failed entirely to report 121,387 transactions to the FCA during the same period.
The total number of inaccurate or absent transactions from the firm, according to the FCA, is 35,156,197.
Within the FCA’s report, it states that accurate and complete transaction reporting is “essential to enable the Authority to meet its operational objective of protecting and enhancing the integrity of the United Kingdom financial system.”
The regulator classes a transaction report as “data submitted to the Authority that relates to an individual financial market transaction which includes, but is not limited to, details of the product traded, the firm that undertook the trade and trade characteristics such as price, time and quantity.”
Commenting on the fine, Georgina Phillippou, FCA Acting Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, explained that the reason for the severity of the financial penalty was due to MLI’s consistent failures.
"Proper transaction reporting really matters. Merrill Lynch International has failed to get this right again – despite a Private Warning, a previous fine, and extensive FCA guidance and enforcement action in this area,”Phillippou said.
“The size of the fine sends a clear message that we expect to be heard and understood across the industry.
"Accurate and timely reporting of transactions is crucial for us to perform effective surveillance for insider trading and market manipulation in support of our objective to ensure that markets work well and with integrity."
Global wealth management firm Merrill Lynch International has received a £13.2 million fine as part of an FCA ruling upon the firm's failure to correctly report millions of transactions….
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