FSA fines SocGen for transaction reporting failings

French investment bank Société Générale has been fined £1,575,000 by UK regulator the Financial Services Authority for failing to provide the regulator with accurate transaction reports.
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French investment bank Société Générale has been fined £1,575,000 by UK regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failing to provide the regulator with accurate transaction reports. The fine is based on SocGen's failure to provide accurate reports for 18.8 million of its 23.5 million reportable transactions over a period of just over two years, between November 2007 and February 2010.

Firms are required to ensure they submit data for reportable transactions by close of business the day after a trade is executed. SocGen also fell foul of the FSA requirement that firms must keep all data related to financial transactions and make it available to the FSA for a minimum of five years.

“This is the sixth case in the last year where we have taken action against a firm for failures to make accurate transaction reports,” said Margaret Cole, director of enforcement and financial crime at the FSA. “This is a serious breach of our rules as it can have a damaging impact on our ability to detect and investigate suspected market abuse.”

Other high-profile fines in recent months include Credit Suisse, Instinet, Barclays, Getco and Commerzbank. In total, the FSA has imposed fines of over £8.5 million on European banks for having inadequate reporting arrangements since August 2009.

“We will continue to monitor the quality of firm reporting and we are committed to taking action where necessary to ensure firms comply with their reporting obligations,” added Cole.

Following the fine, SocGen has commissioned a formal review of its transaction reporting process.

“We have fully cooperated with the FSA throughout their investigation and have taken and continue to take all the necessary steps to ensure that we are able to meet our transaction reporting obligations to the FSA going forward,” commented a SocGen spokesperson.

SocGen qualified for a 30% discount on its fine due to the firm's cooperation with the FSA investigation, which would otherwise have stood at £2.25 million.

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