FCA Fines Sigma Broking Over £1 Million for Five-Year Transaction Reporting Failures

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Sigma Broking Limited £1,087,300 for submitting nearly one million inaccurate transaction reports over a five-year period, affecting the regulator’s ability to detect and investigate market abuse.

The FCA first raised concerns in May 2023, after its monitoring systems identified issues in Sigma’s reporting. In January 2024, Sigma disclosed that approximately 984,000 incorrect reports had been submitted. A subsequent independent review confirmed in February 2025 that 924,584 reports, nearly 100% of all transactions between 1 December 2018 and 1 December 2023, were incorrect.

The failures stemmed from system misconfigurations and persistent weaknesses in Sigma’s reporting processes. This marks the FCA’s second enforcement action against the firm for inadequate transaction reports.

In October 2022, Sigma was fined £531,600 for failing to report 56,000 transactions and overlooking 97 suspicious trades between December 2014 and August 2016. The FCA also penalized three directors, imposing fines exceeding £200,000, and banned two.

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.”

Transaction reports are vital for market supervision, firm supervision, and information-sharing. This case represents the second MiFIR-related enforcement in the UK, following action against Infinox Capital Limited six months earlier.

The FCA has recently intensified its crackdown on financial misconduct, issuing fines for financial crime control failures, misleading conduct, and pursuing legal action against unauthorized investment schemes.