Alpine Securities Corporation has agreed to a fine and a censure as a part of a settlement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The settlement offer, which FINRA has determined to accept, is submitted on the condition that FINRA will not bring any future actions against the respondent alleging violations based on the same factual findings.
The settlement stems from Alpine’s alleged violations of FINRA rules between October 10, 2017 and April 10, 2018 and between August 27 and August 31, 2018.
In particular, out of 56 Order Audit Trail System (OATS) submissions sampled during the Review Period, Alpine submitted 35 Reportable Order Events (ROEs) with inaccurate order details, concentrated between March 26 and April 5, 2018 and between August 27 and 31, 2018. These inaccurate OATS submissions consisted of: (i) 23 combined order/execution reports with inaccurate account type codes; and (ii) 12 orders reported with an inaccurate order received timestamp.
Alpine attributed these reporting errors to its transition to a new order management system on or about August 22, 2018.
Also, out of 50 principal and riskless-principal transactions sampled during the Review Period, Alpine failed to report the riskless portion of 15 riskless-principal transactions involving an over-the-counter security to the OTCRF. All 15 violations occurred between August 29- 31, 2018. Alpine also attributed these reporting failures to its transition to a new order management system on or about August 22, 2018.
Alpine consents to the imposition of the following sanctions:
- a censure
- a $30,000 fine (consisting of a $16,000 fine for violating FINRA Rules 7450 and 2010, and a $14,000 fine for violating FINRA Rule 6622).
