FX broker fined for misleading clients over “printed” trades

FOREIGN exchange broker TFS-ICAP was today slapped with a £3.44 million fine by the City watchdog for misleading clients over a seven-year period.

The options broker was found guilty of “printing” trades.

This involves telling clients that a certain trade has happened at a particular trade even though, “no such trade has actually taken place”, said the Financial Conduct Authority.

This took place between 2008 and 2015, “across multiple broking desks, openly” said the regulator.

TFS-ICAP is not related to the much bigger money broker TP-ICAP, a stalwart of the City.

Mark Steward of the FCA said: “This market should take notice that printing, or providing information to clients where the basis for the information is not true, is not in keeping with appropriate standards of market conduct. The market should also take notice that the opacity of such practices, while forensically challenging, is no bar to action either.”

TFS-ICAP got a 30% reduction in the fine for admitting its failings early. 

Since 2018, a senior manager and desk head have left TFS-ICAP, and the composition of its board has changed, the FCA said