The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered Pictet Overseas Inc. to pay USD 610,000 and Blue Ocean ATS USD 550,000 for anti-money laundering and supervisory failures linked to low-priced securities transactions, for a combined USD 1.16 million. FINRA found that both firms lacked AML compliance programs reasonably designed to detect and cause the reporting of suspicious activity in a high-risk trading area. For Pictet, the findings covered low-priced securities activity from September 2021 to February 2025, including about USD 300 million of transactions involving more than 150 million shares between February 2022 and March 2023, with more than 70% of the activity occurring through an omnibus account held by its foreign financial institution affiliate. FINRA said the firm relied on ineffective manually compiled reports, failed to investigate red flags such as customer trading that at times exceeded 20% of daily market volume, and did not maintain a reasonably designed due diligence program for foreign financial institution correspondent accounts. It also found separate failures in supervision related to Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933, trade reporting to the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine, trade confirmations, and oversight of those reporting and disclosure obligations. For Blue Ocean, whose platform handled 95% of overnight trading volume since inception, the deficiencies dated back at least to January 2023 and included surveillance that relied mainly on manual reviews by a single employee and did not cover spoofing, layering or other manipulative order-entry patterns. Blue Ocean was ordered to certify that it has remediated the deficiencies in its AML compliance program. Both firms settled by consenting to FINRA's findings without admitting or denying the charges.
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority2026-05-20
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fines Pictet Overseas USD 610,000 and Blue Ocean ATS USD 550,000 for AML and supervisory failures in low-priced securities trading
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ordered Pictet Overseas Inc. to pay USD 610,000 and Blue Ocean ATS USD 550,000, totaling USD 1.16 million, for anti-money laundering and supervisory failures involving low-priced securities. FINRA found both firms lacked AML programs reasonably designed to detect and report suspicious activity, citing Pictet’s ineffective monitoring of substantial low-priced securities trading and deficient supervision, and Blue Ocean’s manual surveillance that failed to address spoofing, layering or other manipulative patterns.