Three Broker-Dealers to Pay More Than $6 Million in Penalties for Providing Deficient Blue Sheet Data

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that three broker-dealers have agreed to pay more than $6 million to settle charges for providing the SEC with incomplete and inaccurate securities trading information in required SEC productions known as “blue sheet data,” which the SEC uses to carry out its enforcement and regulatory obligations, including the investigation of insider trading and other fraudulent activity. According to the SEC’s orders, over a period of several years, Citadel Securities LLC, Natixis Securities Americas LLC, and MUFG Securities Americas Inc. each made numerous deficient blue sheet submissions containing inaccurate or missing data; incorrect order execution times that failed to adjust for time zone changes; and incorrect or missing exchange codes, transaction type identifiers, opposing broker number and contra-party identifiers.