FCA fines Sigma Broking Limited for transaction reporting failures

The FCA’s monitoring systems identified issues with the transaction reports submitted by Sigma, which were raised with the firm in May 2023.

In January 2024, Sigma told the FCA that around 984,000 incorrect reports had been submitted. Following an independent review, Sigma confirmed in February 2025 that the total number of incorrect reports was 924,584, close to 100% of transactions handled by the firm between 1 December 2018 and 1 December 2023.

These failures were caused by incorrect system setup and persisted uncorrected due to weaknesses in their reporting processes.

Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said: 'The transaction reports we receive are crucial to the work we do in combatting financial crime. Sigma’s failures were serious, sustained and showed a lack of care.

'We will take action whenever we identify such failures.'

This is the second enforcement action against Sigma for inadequate transaction reports, which affects the FCA’s ability to detect and investigate market abuse effectively.

In October 2022, the FCA fined Sigma £531,600 for failing to report on 56,000 transactions and identify 97 suspicious trades between December 2014 and August 2016. The regulator also took action against 3 directors with fines totalling over £200,000, 2 of whom were banned.

This case took 16 months from opening in April 2024 to achieving a public outcome - compared to an average of 42 months for cases closed in 2023/24. The FCA continues to improve the pace of its enforcement investigations. 

Notes to editors

• Final Notice: Sigma Broking Limited (PDF)[1].
• Sigma agreed to resolve the case at an early stage and qualified for a 30% discount on the penalty imposed. Without this discount, the fine would have been £1,553,300.
• This is the second enforcement action against a firm for a breach of transaction reporting requirements in the UK Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR)[2] legislation, the first action having been published against Infinox Capital Limited[3] 6 months ago.
• Sigma breached Article 26 of MiFIR and Principle 3 of the FCA's Principles for Businesses.
• Article 26[4] of MiFIR means the obligation to report transactions.
• Principle 3 of the FCA's Principles[5] for Businesses requires firms to take reasonable care to control their affairs responsibly and effectively.
• Transaction reports are submitted to the FCA when a transaction is executed in a financial instrument. Transaction reports include, but are not limited to, information on the financial instrument traded, the price and the participants involved. Read more information about transaction reporting[6].
• The FCA uses the information from transaction reports for:
  • monitoring market abuse
  • firm supervision
  • market supervision
  • sharing with certain external parties, such as the Bank of England