The London branch of Société Générale (SocGen) has been ordered to pay a £1.575 million fine to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failing to submit accurate transaction reports.

The severity of the fine, the FSA said, reflects the serious nature of SocGen’s failure to provide accurate reports for around 80 per cent of its reportable transactions, across all of its asset classes, for over two years.

Data for reportable transactions is required by the FSA by close of business the day after a trade is executed – this data is used to detect and investigate suspected market abuse, such as insider trading and market manipulation.

SocGen also failed to retain and have available all relevant transaction reporting data, which the FSA requires is made available for at least five years.

According to the FSA, SocGen failed to report, or inaccurately reported, 18.8 million of its 23.5 million reportable transactions between November 2007 and February 2010.

These occurred despite the FSA sending repeated reminders to firms detailing their obligations to provide accurate data and of the importance of compliance with the FSA rules on transaction reporting.

“This is the sixth case in the last year where we have taken action against a firm for failures to make accurate transaction reports,” said Margaret Cole, director of enforcement and financial crime at the FSA. “We will continue to monitor the quality of firm reporting and we are committed to taking action where necessary to ensure firms comply with their reporting obligations.

“SocGen failed to accurately report a very high proportion of its transactions for a significant length of time. This failure is a serious breach of our rules as it can have a damaging impact on our ability to detect and investigate suspected market abuse.”

SocGen cooperated with the FSA during the investigation, and a settlement was agreed at an early stage with a 30 per cent discount. Had this discount not been applied, the fine would have been £2.25 million.

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