By Stephen Nakrosis 
 

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Tuesday that Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. will pay $300,000 to settle charges it failed to produce required records and separately failed to "supervise its employees and agents to ensure that they fulfilled the firm's statutory and regulatory obligations to keep and promptly produce such records."

The CFTC said Merrill Lynch failed to produce reliable audit trail data requested by the commission's enforcement division. The CFTC order said these failures led to delays in a CFTC investigation.

The CFTC order also noted Merrill Lynch took steps to revise its procedures for responding to regulatory data requests, including delegating employees to interpret the requests, provide data and independently assess the procedure and results.

"As this case shows, the CFTC will hold registrants accountable for their regulatory obligations," said James McDonald, director of the CFTC's Division of Enforcement. "Recordkeeping requirements are important for regulatory and enforcement purposes, and the failure to produce reliable audit trail data here impeded a CFTC investigation."

A spokesperson for Merrill Lynch said the company had no comment.

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) is the parent of Merrill Lynch.

 

--Write to Stephen Nakrosis at stephen.nakrosis@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 10, 2019 16:10 ET (20:10 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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