CFTC fines ICE US exchange for flawed market data

Washington (AFP) – The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday slapped a $ 3 million fine on the ICE Futures US market for repeatedly reporting flawed data.

The CFTC said that over at least a 20-month period, between October 2012 and May 2014, ICE US had filed inaccurate and incomplete reports and data every day.

ICE US is home to a wide array of commodities futures and options trading, including crude oil and natural gas, foreign exchange, and agriculture contracts. It has the exclusive market for derivatives on Russell US equity indexes.

ICE US is owned by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the world’s leading financial markets operator. ICE operates 11 exchanges around the world, including NYSE Euronext, the first transatlantic stock exchange group, acquired in 2013.

The ICE US violations persisted despite CFTC staff repeatedly notifying the exchange of the problems beginning in October 2012 and requesting that it correct them, the market watchdog said.

“The CFTC has taken that cooperation and those actions into account in settling this matter,” the agency said.

In addition to the civilian fine, ICE US was ordered to take certain steps to improve its regulatory reporting, including creating a new position of chief data officer who will be directly responsible for data reporting.

“Today’s action makes clear that registrants who fail to meet their reporting obligations will be held accountable and that the CFTC takes a particularly dim view of reporting violations that continue over many months, especially after CFTC staff has repeatedly alerted the registrant in question to the problems in its reporting,” said Aitan Goelman, the CFTC’s enforcement chief, in the statement.

ICE shares were up 2.7 percent at $ 232.86 in late-afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange.