Infinox Capital has been fined £99,200 by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for failing to submit over 46,000 transaction reports which risked market abuse going undetected.

To detect market abuse effectively, the FCA needs to receive complete and accurate transaction reports.

While the FCA has previously fined firms for transaction reporting failures, this marks the first enforcement action against a firm for a breach of transaction reporting requirements since they became law under the UK Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR).

Between October 2022 and March 2023, Infinox failed to submit transaction reports for single-stock contracts for difference (CFD) trades executed through one of its corporate brokerage accounts. Trades executed through this corporate brokerage account accounted for the majority of this business line.

Although Infinox identified its failure to submit these transaction reports following a third-party review, the FCA found that it had not proactively reported the breach to the regulator. The FCA then independently identified this discrepancy in transaction data submitted by Infinox, which the regulator said highlighted weaknesses in Infinox’s transaction reporting systems.

Joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, Steve Smart, commented: “As a data-led regulator, it is vital that firms submit accurate and timely transaction reports, and promptly bring any failures to our attention.

“Infinox failed to do this, which meant market abuse could have flown under the radar and risked the integrity of the market.

“Our specialist teams constantly monitor market data in real time to track any signs of misconduct.”

---