The Financial Conduct Authority has fined Sigma Broking £531k, and handed out permanent bans to two former directors, after the firm failed to report adequately thousands of contract for difference transactions to the authority.
Between 2014 and 2016, Sigma inaccurately reported, or did not report, 56,000 of these transactions. Neither did the firm notify the FCA about 97 transactions, or orders, that were considered to be suspicious by the authority.
According to the FCA, many of Sigma’s failings had their origins in the inadequate governance and oversight provided by the firm’s board of directors.
Consequently, former chief executive and director Simon Tyson, and former director Stephen Tomlin, have been permanently banned from holding ‘significant management functions’ in firms regulated by the FCA. In addition, the pair have been fined £67,900 and £69,600 respectively.
Sigma chairman Matthew Kent, who co-founded the firm back in 2008, has also been fined £83,600. However, the authority has not singled him out for further punishment.
Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Firms must accurately report their transactions and bring any suspicious activity to our attention. Sigma failed to do this, which left potential market abuse undetected. Those failures came from the top and two directors have been banned from holding senior positions in financial services as a result.
“Accurate transaction reporting and effective surveillance are crucial tools in identifying dodgy dealing that undermines clean markets. These bans and the scale of the fines we have imposed demonstrate our determination to ensure firms – and those who lead them – meet the reporting standards we expect.”
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