Last week it was UBS in the dock for transaction reporting failures, this week Goldman Sachs gets its chance to shine, forking out £34.3 million to the UK's Financial Conduct Authority for errors relating to 220.2 million transaction reports over a ten-year period.
UBS last week was hit with a £27.6 million fine by the regulator for failings relating to 135.8 million transaction reports over the same time frame, from November 2007 to May 2017.
At Goldman Sachs, the FCA found the Wall Street giant guilty of lax reporting in relation to approximately 213.6m reportable transactions. It also erroneously reported 6.6m transactions to the FCA, which were not, in fact, reportable.
The watchdog noted failings related to aspects of GSI’s change management processes, its maintenance of the counterparty reference data used in its reporting and how it tested whether all the transactions it reported to the FCA were accurate and complete.
Mark Steward, FCA executive director of enforcement and market oversight says: "The failings in this case demonstrate a failure over an extended period to manage and test controls that are vitally important to the integrity of our markets. These were serious and prolonged failures. We expect all firms will take this opportunity to ensure they can fully detail their activity and are regularly checking their systems so any problems are detected and remedied promptly, unlike in this case."
As with UBS, GSI agreed to resolve the case and so qualified for a 30% discount in the overall penalty. Without this discount, the FCA would have imposed a fine of £49,063,900.