Robinhood to Pay $45 Million in SEC Settlement Over Regulatory Failures

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declared that Robinhood Securities LLC and Robinhood Financial LLC will collectively pay a fine of $45 million as part of a settlement for multiple allegations concerning their brokerage services.

The allegations originate from numerous oversights in adhering to regulations by both companies. These lapses involve breaches of reporting duties, maintenance of records, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and various compliance matters.

SEC Cites Robinhood for Multiple Violations in Trading and Compliance

According to the SEC’s statement on January 13, Robinhood’s violations spanned several areas. 

According to SEC official Sanjy Wadhwa, it has been determined today that two Robinhood firms neglected to adhere to numerous crucial regulatory standards. These failures encompassed inaccurate reporting of trading activities, non-compliance with short sale regulations, delayed submissions of suspicious activity reports, poor record keeping, and insufficient protection of customer data.

From January 2020 until March 2022, the company neglected to submit timely reports on suspicious activities promptly, leading to delays in investigating such transactions. Furthermore, during the period of April 2019 to July 2022, Robinhood lacked appropriate safeguards to shield customers from identity theft.

Between June and November 2021, a security flaw allowed an unauthorized third-party hacker to breach the data of millions of users, as announced by the SEC.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) discovered that Robinhood had broken rules concerning the preservation of electronic communications and protection of operational data. The company was unable to keep crucial customer interactions from 2020 to 2021, and it seems they didn’t save essential brokerage records as mandated by federal regulations.

Robinhood was criticized for not supplying reliable securities trading data for more than five years, a requirement for the SEC’s monitoring of market transactions.

Beyond the problems already mentioned, the SEC discovered that Robinhood Securities breached Regulation SHO, a set of rules governing short-selling practices. Over the period from May 2019 to December 2023, Robinhood Securities fell short in complying with regulatory standards concerning close-outs, marking orders, and finding shares for short sales.

As an analyst, I’ve acknowledged that both Robinhood Financial and Robinhood Securities have conceded to the findings presented by the SEC. In response, we have consented to conducting self-audits and devising corrective action plans to tackle these issues.

According to the settlement, Robinhood Securities is required to pay a fine amounting to $33.5 million, while Robinhood Financial owes $11.5 million. In this agreement, Robinhood has pledged to enhance their compliance practices moving forward.

Lately, Robinhood has been fined $3.5 million due to restricting customer access to their cryptocurrency assets and deceptive business tactics. This probe was carried out by the California Department of Justice.

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2025-01-14 10:50