The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined four firms a total of $62,000 for errors in the reporting of municipal securities transactions, including $25,000 against Goldman, Sachs & Co., the self-regulator announced in monthly disciplinary decisions released Friday.
FINRA also fined Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities Inc. $15,000, Denver-based Isaak Bond Investments Inc. $12,000, and Anaheim, Calif.-based Centaurus Financial Inc. $10,000.
All four firms consented to the fines without admitting or denying FINRA’s findings. Officials at the firms either could not be reached or declined to comment.
Between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2009, FINRA found that Goldman failed to report the correct time of execution to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s real-time transaction reporting system for 218 muni transaction reports.
During the same period, Goldman also failed to timely report 134 transactions within the 15 minutes required by the MSRB’s Rule G-14 on transaction reporting. These transactions constituted about 3.2% of the total municipal trades reported to the board during the review period.
From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2009, FINRA found that Goldman failed to report the correct time of execution for 79 muni transactions, and failed to timely report 73 muni transactions.
Meanwhile, FINRA found that from Jan. 1 to March 31, 2009, Wedbush failed to report the correct time of trade in 142 municipal trade reports sent to the MSRB. The transactions constituted 3.9% of the 3,616 muni trades entered into by the firm during the review period.
During the same period, Wedbush also failed to timely report 141 purchase and sale transactions to the board, FINRA said.
From July 1 to Sept. 30, 2007, FINRA found that Isaak failed to timely report 209 muni transactions to the MSRB. The trades constituted 18.88% of the 1,107 transactions that the firm reported to the board during the time period.
In addition, from April 1 to June 30, 2008, the firm failed to timely report 161 purchase and sale transactions within 15 minutes required by G-14.
It also failed to report four “when-issued” trades within three hours — trades in which a firm wins the rights to sell bonds ahead of their actual date of issuance and settlement.
FINRA found that from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2008, Centaurus failed to report the correct time of trade to the MSRB in 79 transaction reports, constituting 20.4% of the transactions that the firm reported to the board during the review period.
During the same period, the firm failed to timely report 13 transactions, which constituted 3.4% of the transactions the firm reported to the MSRB.
In addition to violations of G-14, FINRA found that Centaurus’ conduct was in violation ofRule G-27 on supervision.
