RBC Agrees to Pay $35M Penalty For Improper Wash, Fictitious Sales

Royal Bank of Canada agreed Dec. 18 to pay a $35 million civil penalty to settle CFTC charges that the bank made “more than 1,000 illegal wash sales, fictitious sales and noncompetitive transactions” from 2007 to 2010 (CFTC v. Royal Bank of Canada, S.D.N.Y., 12-cv-2497, 12/18/14).

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleged that 1,026 of RBC’s sales of narrow-based stock index futures and single stock futures contracts on a Chicago exchange were improper.

RBC consented to the findings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York without admitting or denying wrongdoing. Judge Alvin Hellerstein ...