JPMorgan fined $348M for falling short on trading surveillance

JPMorgan Chase & Co. was fined a total of $348 million by US regulators over gaps in its trade-surveillance program, which they said failed to monitor conduct of its employees and clients. 

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency fined the bank $250 million, while the Federal Reserve added a $98 million penalty, according to statements from the regulators Thursday. Both overseers required the bank to take corrective actions to fix the issues, which they said occurred as recently as last year. 

“The consequences of these deficiencies include the bank’s failure to surveil billions of instances of trading activity on at least 30 global trading venues,” the OCC said in its consent order. The bank neither admitted nor denied the OCC’s findings. 

A representative for the bank said it doesn’t expect any disruption to client services as a result of the actions. 

“As we disclosed last month, we self-identified the issue, significant remedial actions have been taken and others are underway,” the spokesperson said. “We have not found any employee misconduct or harm to clients or the market in our review of the previously uncaptured data.”

The firm had disclosed the expected fines from two US regulators in a mid-February regulatory filing. At that time, the bank also said it was in advanced negotiations with a third US regulator, which it didn’t name.  

According to the OCC, JPMorgan’s trade-surveillance program has operated with certain deficiencies since at least 2019. The firm failed to establish adequate governance over trading venues where it’s active, the regulator said, citing gaps in venue coverage and a lack of sufficient data controls. 

“These gaps and deficiencies in JPMC’s trade surveillance program constitute unsafe or unsound banking practices,” the OCC said. 

The regulator also issued a cease and desist order requiring the bank to take a number of remedial steps. The bank isn’t allowed to add new trading venues without receiving approval from the OCC and must get an independent third party to conduct a trade-surveillance program assessment, the regulator said. 

In its own statement, the Fed said the bank’s inadequate monitoring practices occurred between 2014 and 2023.