US brokerage firm Stifel, Nicolaus & Company has been fined $175,000 and censured by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for publishing inaccurate and incomplete reports on how it handled customer orders in National Market System (NMS) securities.
Stifel Fined $175,000 Over Inaccurate Order Routing Disclosures
According to FINRA, between January 2020 and December 2023, Stifel released 16 quarterly reports under Rule 606(a) of Regulation NMS that misstated key information, including payments for order flow, profit-sharing arrangements, transaction fees and rebates.
In some cases, the firm is said to have incorrectly reported these amounts as zero, despite having received or paid such sums.
FINRA found that several reports failed to disclose material aspects of Stifel’s relationships with execution venues.
The regulator explained that some omitted required details entirely, while others relied on vague statements or hyperlinks instead of specific pricing and arrangement information. Additionally, the firm misidentified three broker-dealers as execution venues in 11 reports.
The regulator also determined that Stifel’s supervisory system was inadequate from January 2020 to April 2025.
Although it used a third-party vendor to compile the reports, the firm did not review the accuracy of the underlying data or the completeness of its disclosures.
Written supervisory procedures reportedly lacked guidance on how to verify the reports, and no post-publication review was carried out.
Stifel, which has been a FINRA member since 1936 and employs around 5,000 registered representatives, accepted the findings without admitting or denying the allegations.
