British bank Barclays was fined £2.45 million today for failing to provide accurate transaction reports and flaws in its reporting procedures.
Companies need to submit data for reportable transactions and failures by investment bank arm Barclays Capital could have damaged the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) ability to detect and investigate suspected market abuse, the FSA said.
"The penalty imposed on Barclays is significantly higher than previous penalties imposed for transaction reporting errors.
This reflects the serious nature of Barclays' breaches and is a warning to other firms that the FSA will not tolerate inadequate systems and controls," said Alexander Justham, the FSA's director of markets.
The breaches occurred between October 2006 and November 2008 across all asset classes.
Barclays failed to submit accurate transaction reports for about 57.5 million transactions, including failing to submit any report, not identifying whether it was a buy or sell, or including incorrect codes.
Barclays co-operated with the FSA and had taken a number of steps to address the concerns raised.
"The regulatory reporting errors were caused by inaccuracies in our data feeds to the FSA. No counterparties, clients, or financial reports were affected in any way," BarCap said in a statement.
Reuters