FINRA fines Santander Investment Securities, Deutsche Bank Securities

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority took disciplinary actions against multiple financial services firms in September for certain violations, according to its November report.

The companies involved neither admitted nor denied the regulator's findings while consenting to the sanctions.

On Sept. 7, Santander Investment Securities Inc. was fined $175,000 over findings that it published and distributed to its institutional customers equity research reports that did not include required disclosures or included inaccurate disclosures. Additionally, the company failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system that was reasonably designed to achieve compliance with FINRA disclosure requirements, according to the regulator's findings.

FINRA on Sept. 10 fined Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. $800,000, of which $156,250 is payable to the regulator, over findings that the company failed to have a reasonably designed supervisory system for its participation and the participation of its customers in partial tender offers to comply with Rule 14e-4 of the Securities Exchange Act Rule of 1934, which generally prohibits the tendering of more shares than a person owns in such offers. Deutsche Bank Securities' operational procedures were additionally flawed as they did not take into account several required factors, including options positions or securities held by the same person in multiple accounts, when calculating a person's position in the security being tendered, as per FINRA's findings.