British Regulator Fines UBS £27.6m for Reporting Failures

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has handed a fine of £27.6m to UBS, a Swiss bank, for its failure to report transactions amounting to 135.8m from 2007 to 2017.

According to FCA, UBS failed in providing complete as well as accurate information with regards to reportable transactions amounting to 86.67m. The bank also reported 49.1m transactions to the financial regulator which it didn’t need to.

The FCA also found that the bank failed to put in proper procedures and controls for ensuring proper reporting of its transactions.

The FCA stated that UBS failed in maintaining reference data used for reporting and was careless when testing whether the transactions it reported were complete and accurate.

Firms must have proper controls and systems for identifying the transactions they have carried out, at what terms, on what markets and with whom. If companies are not able to report all their transactions accurately then this gives rise to risk of hidden market abuse.

UBS availed a 30% discount in the overall penalty from the FCA after it agreed to resolved the case. If the firm had not agreed to resolve the case, the financial regulator would have required the Swiss bank to pay financial penalty of £39.4m.

A UBS representative said that although there was never any impact on investors, clients, or market users the bank has invested heavily to improve its controls and overall system for reporting of its transactions.

To date, the financial regulator has handed fines to 12 other firms for similar transaction reporting breaches: Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch International, Royal Bank of Scotland, Plus500UK, James Sharp & Co, City Index Limited, Commerzbank, Société Générale, Instinet Europe Ltd, Credit Suisse, Getco Europe Ltd and Barclays Capital Securities Ltd and Barclays Bank.