WASHINGTON — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday announced a $6 million penalty against Goldman Sachs for providing incomplete and inaccurate trading information to the regulator.
The banking giant made more than 22,000 deficient "blue sheet" submissions over a roughly 10-year period, affecting at least 163 million transactions, according to an SEC order. The SEC routinely sends these electronic requests to brokers for securities trading information to identify buyers and sellers.
"Firms must provide complete and accurate blue sheet data in response to our requests," Thomas P. Smith Jr., associate regional director in the SEC's New York Regional Office, said in a release. "Blue sheet data is vital to the Commission's ability to carry out its enforcement and regulatory functions and to protect investors and maintain market integrity."
Goldman, which admitted to the findings, agreed to the fine and censure.
The firm is "pleased to have resolved this matter," Abbey Collins, a spokesperson for Goldman Sachs, told CNBC. Collins also noted that Goldman "is in the process of remediating its final categories of EBS deficiencies and resubmitting corrected EBS to the Commission."
The firm self-reported 29 of the 43 types of errors detected by the SEC after an internal review. But the SEC also found that Goldman had insufficient internal processes to verify the accuracy of its blue sheet submissions.