FCA Fines Goldman Sachs £34 Million for Reporting Failures

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced this Thursday that it has fined Goldman Sachs International £34,344,700 ($45,163,281) for not providing accurate and timely reporting for 220.2 million transaction reports between November 2007 until March 2017.

Between this period, Goldman Sachs did not give the British regulator complete and accurate information in relation to around 213.6 million reportable transactions, the FCA said. Furthermore, the company incorrectly reported 6.6 million transactions, which weren’t actually reportable.

A transaction report is a data set which is submitted to the British regulator and covers individual financial market transactions, including details of the product traded, the firm that undertook the trade and more.

Overall, during the period of nine and a half years, the firm made 220.2 million errors in its transaction reporting. In addition, the UK watchdog found that Goldman Sachs didn’t take enough care to organize and control its affairs when concerning transaction reporting.

FCA Gives Goldman Sachs 30% Discount on Penalty

However, because the firm has agreed to resolve the case, it is entitled to a 30 percent discount in the overall penalty, the FCA said. Without this discount, Goldman Sachs International would have been slapped with a financial penalty of £49,063,900.

Commenting on the incident, Mark Steward, FCA Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight said: “The failings in this case demonstrate a failure over an extended period to manage and test controls that are vitally important to the integrity of our markets. These were serious and prolonged failures."

“We expect all firms will take this opportunity to ensure they can fully detail their activity and are regularly checking their systems so any problems are detected and remedied promptly, unlike in this case.”

So far, the British regulator has fined 13 other firms for similar breaches. This number includes UBS AG which was fined £27.6 million, Merrill Lynch International (MLI), Deutsche Bank AG, Plus500UK, Credit Suisse and Barclays Capital Securities Limited, Barclays Bank Plc, among others.