On January 27, FINRA accepted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent (AWC) addressing alleged violations committed by the respondent, retail market maker offering execution services to broker-dealers and member firm since June 2001. The respondent was found to have allegedly failed in timely reporting a substantial number of transactions in National Market System (NMS) securities and over-the-counter (OTC) securities. Specifically, between January 2020 and February 2021, the respondent allegedly failed to report over 1.5 million transactions in NMS securities to certain reporting facilities within the required ten-second window, violating FINRA Rules 6380A(a), 6380B(a), and 2010. Additionally, between December 2020 and February 2021, it allegedly failed to report over 100,000 transactions in OTC securities to the Over-the-Counter Trade Reporting Facility, breaching FINRA Rules 6622(a) and 2010. These alleged failures were attributed to a technical issue with the respondent’s order management system’s resulting in an inability to handle high trading volumes and issues during a transition to a new system.
Neither admitting nor denying FINRA’s allegations, the respondent consented to a censure and a $175,000 fine. The settlement will become part of the respondent’s permanent disciplinary record, with the firm agreeing not to deny the findings or create an impression that the AWC lacks factual basis. The respondent also will submit a corrective action statement, demonstrating steps taken to prevent future violations.
