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November 11, 2011 at 07:13 AM
The SEC charged UBS Securities (UBS) Thursday with faulty record-keeping practices related to short sales, and UBS agreed to pay an $8 million penalty to settle the enforcement action. The bank will also retain an independent consultant as a result of the regulatory group’s action.
The SEC’s action follows FINRA’s fining of UBS for $12 million in late October in connection with violations of Regulation SHO and failure to properly supervise short sales of securities.
“Regulators must be able to rely on a firm’s records to mean what they say, especially when those records are meant to provide the key evidence of a firm’s compliance with the law and safeguard against illegal short selling,” said George S. Canellos, director of the SEC’s New York regional office, in a press release. “UBS permitted its employees to create records that do not accurately convey the basis upon which its employees granted locates.”
Broker-dealers are required under Regulation SHO to accurately record the basis upon which it has given out “locates,” a confirmation that a broker-dealer has borrowed, arranged to borrow, or reasonably believes it could borrow the security to settle the short sale.
For its part, UBS said in a statement that it “is pleased to have resolved this matter with the SEC [and] has implemented enhancements to its Securities Lending Desk’s procedures and systems.”
