FINRA Fines UBS $1.1 Million for Trade Confirmation Rules Violations
By Staff
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined global brokerage firm and investment adviser UBS Financial Services Inc., or UBS FSI, $1.1 million for violating trade confirmation rules. The violations occurred over a 10-year period and involved more than 330 million trade confirmations.
According to FINRA, from February 2014 through November 2024, UBS FSI sent customers more than 330 million trade confirmations that either failed to disclose that the price shown was an average price or disclosed that the price shown may have been an average price when it was not. These failures occurred despite FINRA notifying UBS FSI about its inaccurate average price disclosures in February 2014. FINRA said that UBS FSI did not fully remediate the issue until November of 2024.
As a result, UBS FSI violated FINRA Rule 2232 which requires that members provide customers with written trade confirmations that conform to the requirements of Exchange Act Rule 10b-10. These rules require that confirmations include certain basic information about the transaction, such as the identity of the security, the price, the number of shares and the execution capacity of the broker-dealer. If the price reflected on the confirmation is an average price, the confirmation must include a disclosure to that effect.
The firm also violated FINRA 3110 which requires member firms to establish and maintain a supervisory system that is reasonably designed to ensure compliance with applicable securities laws and regulations. A violation of Rule 3110 is also a violation of Rule 2010, which requires member firms to observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade.
Without admitting or denying the findings, UBS FSI agreed to the fine and censure.
This penalty comes on the heels of the $3.5 million sanction that UBS recently received for unsuitable short-term trading of syndicate preferred stocks.
Headquartered in Weehawken, N.J., UBS has more than 11,000 registered representatives at more than 800 branch locations. UBS is an international, full-service brokerage firm.
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