The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) SAID IT HAS fined ANZ Securities, Inc. $50,000 and issued a censure after identifying widespread failures in the firm’s trade reporting over a seven-year period.
ANZ Securities Fined $50,000 by FINRA for Trade Reporting Failures
Between July 2016 and June 2023, ANZ inaccurately reported approximately 36,500 transactions to FINRA’s Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) without the required “No Remuneration” indicator, which signals when no commission, mark-up or mark-down is charged.
FINRA explained that in about 22,500 of those cases, the firm also omitted the “Non-Member Affiliate-Principal Transaction” indicator, resulting in trades being publicly disseminated when they should not have been.
According to FINRA, the omissions stemmed from a misinterpretation of reporting rules and meant that around 80% of ANZ’s corporate debt trades were reported incorrectly.
“A failure to accurately report the NR Indicator affects the audit trail and can result in either false alerts or the inability to detect problematic transactions,” FINRA said.
The regulator also found that ANZ’s supervisory system was not “reasonably designed” to ensure compliance, with no process in place to review the accuracy of transaction indicators.
As part of the settlement, ANZ must certify within 60 days that it has corrected the deficiencies and implemented a compliant supervisory framework.
ANZ, which has been a FINRA member since 1995, consented to the sanctions without admitting or denying the findings. The firm agreed to remediate the issues after FINRA’s review and to cooperate fully with the regulator.
