Australian Securities & Investments Commission investigation leads to Markets Disciplinary Panel fining Petra Capital AUD 205,350 for regulatory data misreporting

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) reported that the Markets Disciplinary Panel (MDP) has fined Sydney-based stockbroking firm Petra Capital Pty Ltd AUD 205,350 for breaching market integrity rules by misreporting regulatory data on more than 3,600 occasions. The MDP found Petra Capital failed to provide accurate client reference information, a unique code used to identify clients executing orders or transactions. Inconsistent client reference information, triggered by a system update, resulted in one client appearing as multiple clients on 3,632 occasions and affected 14,741 trades between 3 March 2022 and 5 December 2023. The MDP assessed the conduct as careless and pointed to the need for proactive, periodic system reviews and validation of coding assumptions; ASIC and the MDP also reminded market participants to review and test reporting systems at least annually, ensure compliance staff are sufficiently involved in technical reporting processes, and independently verify compliance where external reporting expertise is used. Petra Capital has complied with the infringement notice and paid the penalty, which is not an admission of guilt or liability and does not mean Petra Capital is taken to have contravened subsection 798H(1) of the Corporations Act 2001.