The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has slapped a $900,000 and a censure on Credit Suisse’s subsidiary, Credit Suisse Securities (USA), for submission of over 9,000 delayed trades and hundreds of thousands of inaccurate TRACE reports.
The US regulator detailed that the penalty follows a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent (AWC) by the company to FINRA, admitting to a series of violations of the agency’s rules.
According to the documents released by FINRA, the enforcement action encompasses the timeframe spanning from November 2015 to March 2023. During this period, the company made a series of violations, including submitting late and inaccurate trade reports and improper internal late error rate targets.
FINRA stated:
The firm’s late and inaccurate TRACE reports violated FINRA Rules 6730 and 2010.
In addition, the company failed to provide notifications for approximately 190 new issue offerings in TRACE-reportable securities. Moreover, Credit Suisse’s supervisory system, designed to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of TRACE reporting, was found to be unreasonable by the self-regulatory organisation.
As a result of these violations, Credit Suisse has been ordered to pay a $900,000 fine and has received censure. The penalties will be enforced upon the formal decision of FINRA. However, FINRA has agreed not to pursue further actions related to the same findings outlined in the AWC if the agreement is accepted. This provision will prevent the imposition of duplicate penalties on the financial services company.
FINRA also issued a cautionary statement regarding phishing endeavours aimed at member firms. Instances were observed where individuals posing as FINRA were dispatching emails to FINRA members, enticing them to click on fraudulent links.
One month prior, the regulatory entity imposed a $3 million penalty on the brokerage firm Webull for the improper inclusion of unqualified options traders in their platform during the period spanning from December 2019 to July 2021.
Last year, FINRA imposed a $200,00 fine on Credit Suisse for reporting deficiencies.
