Macquarie raises blue and white flags in US equities

A "failure to provide complete and accurate trade data" to authorities was the surprising charge in a sanction from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority against Macquarie Group on Christmas Eve.

FINRA, a private, self-regulatory organisation, said it censured and fined Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc US$2.95 million for failing to provide complete and accurate trade data in an automated format when requested by the Securities and Exchange Commission and FINRA.

The fracas related to daily "blue sheet" data submissions.

After producing a systems and governance fix Macquarie must "subsequently certify that they have established procedures reasonably designed to address and correct the violations," FINRA said.

FINRA found that from January 2012 to September 2015, Macquarie experienced multiple problems with its electronic systems used to compile and produce blue sheet data.

"This caused the firm to submit some blue sheets that misreported buys as sells and vice versa on allocations of certain customer trades, miscalculate the net amount of transactions, fail to report post-trade cancels and corrections, and fail to provide accurate customer information. FINRA also found that Macquarie failed to have adequate audit systems in place."

Macquarie, in an email, pointed out that "as part of the settlement, FINRA acknowledged Macquarie's initiative in identifying and self-reporting the issue as well as Macquarie's lack of relevant disciplinary history."

As is typical in such matters, Macquarie neither admitted nor denied the allegations.