FCA Fines Sigma Broking £1.08 Million for MiFIR Transaction Reporting Failures Impacting Financial Crime Detection

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Sigma Broking Limited £1,087,300 after the firm failed to submit complete and accurate transaction reports for a five‑year period, breaching the UK Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) and Principle 3 of the FCA’s Principles for Businesses.

The regulator’s monitoring systems first flagged concerns with Sigma’s transaction reports in May 2023. By January 2024, the firm admitted that around 984,000 incorrect reports had been submitted. An independent review later confirmed that 924,584 reports were inaccurate, representing almost 100% of all transactions handled between 1 December 2018 and 1 December 2023.

The FCA concluded that incorrect system configuration and weaknesses in Sigma’s reporting controls allowed these failures to persist without detection or remediation. Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said:

The transaction reports we receive are crucial to the work we do in combatting financial crime. Sigma’s failures were serious, sustained and showed a lack of care. We will take action whenever we identify such failures.

This is the second enforcement action against Sigma for inadequate transaction reporting. In October 2022, the FCA fined the firm £531,600 for failing to report 56,000 transactions and failing to identify 97 suspicious trades between December 2014 and August 2016. That earlier case also resulted in fines of more than £200,000 for three directors, with two being banned from the industry.

The FCA emphasised that transaction reports are vital for detecting market abuse, supervising firms, and maintaining market integrity. Data from these reports is also shared with other key authorities, including the Bank of England.

Sigma agreed to settle the case early, qualifying for a 30% penalty discount. Without this, the fine would have been £1,553,300. The investigation took 16 months from its opening in April 2024 to public conclusion, significantly faster than the 42‑month average for cases closed in 2023/24.

This marks the second MiFIR transaction reporting breach enforcement in six months, following action against Infinox Capital Limited. The FCA has reiterated its commitment to accelerating enforcement timelines and holding firms accountable for failures that undermine market transparency and financial crime prevention.

Read the press release here.