FINRA has imposed a $30,000 fine on tastytrade, a Chicago-based retail trading platform and the US subsidiary of publicly listed broker IG Group (LSE: IGG), for failing to properly supervise its employees' outside securities accounts over a two-year period.

Tastytrade Agrees to $30,000 Fine in FINRA Supervision Case

According to FINRA, tastytrade allegedly failed to maintain adequate supervision of approximately 84 outside securities accounts belonging to 35 employees between July 2021 and June 2023.

“From July 2021 through July 2023, tastytrade failed to establish, maintain, and enforce a supervisory system, including written supervisory procedures (WSPs), reasonably designed to supervise the outside securities accounts disclosed to the firm by its associated persons,” FINRA commented.

The investigation revealed significant delays in reviewing employee trading activities, with 25 employees' brokerage accounts from the fourth quarter of 2021 going unchecked. The situation deteriorated further in early 2022, with nearly all employee outside account reviews falling behind schedule.

Most notably, 14 accounts remained completely unreviewed until June 2023, when FINRA conducted a cycle examination of the firm. The regulatory body found that tastytrade's written supervisory procedures lacked specific guidelines for documenting and tracking these mandatory reviews.

tastytrade is a part of IG Group, the publicly listed retail broker from the UK. However, news of the fine imposed on the subsidiary did not affect IGG's stock price, which today (Thursday) is up 0.4%, testing the 951 pence level.

According to the company's latest report for the three-month period ending August 31, tastytrade generated total revenue of nearly $71 million, accounting for one-quarter of IG's total revenue for the period, which amounted to $279 million.

Regulatory Response

While accepting FINRA's findings without admitting or denying them, tastytrade agreed to pay the monetary sanction and receive a censure. The firm, which has been a FINRA member since 2016, maintains 73 registered representatives at its Chicago headquarters.

“In July 2023, tastytrade updated its WSPs and made enhancements to its system for supervision of employees’ outside security accounts,” FINRA added.

The settlement highlights FINRA's continued focus on member firms' supervision of employee trading activities, particularly in the growing retail trading platform sector. tastytrade is another popular retail trading brand sanctioned by FINRA in last month, after the regulastory body issued a censure order and penalty of $475,000 on Interactive Brokers (Nasdaq: IBKR) for lapses in its share lending program.

Earlier in June, TradeZero America, another trading platform for retail investors, has been fined $250,000, after facing allegations of multiple regulatory violations between July 2020 and October 2022