Two New York-based broker-dealers - Chapdelaine & Co. and Whitaker Securities LLC - agreed to pay a total of $30,000 to settle muni trade rule violations, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced yesterday.
The sanctions were in FINRA's monthly disciplinary actions.
The two firms consented to the fines without admitting or denying FINRA's findings.
Chapdelaine agreed to pay $20,000 for two sets of violations of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's Rule G-14 on reports of sales and purchases, which governs how dealers report muni trade information to the board.
FINRA found that, from Aug. 1, 2007, through July 31, 2008, the firm failed to report the correct information for 30,584, or 19%, of its interdealer trades of munis under the MSRB's Real-Time Transaction Reporting System.
Dealers are required under the RTRS to report trade data for most muni trades within 15 minutes of when they are executed.
In addition, from June 1, 2007, through Aug. 31, 2008, Chapdelaine improperly reported trade information that should not have been submitted to the board under the transaction reporting system, FINRA said.
The self-regulator found that Whitaker, from April 1, 2008, to June 30, 2008, failed to report information on a timely basis for 220, or 14%, of the muni trades for which it had to report data to the rulemaking board.
Specifically, the firm failed to meet the reporting system's 15-minute reporting deadline, FINRA said.
Representatives of the firms declined to comment on the sanctions.
