BaFin Imposes €290K Administrative Fine on Vanguard Group for Rules Breaches

BaFin, Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, yesterday announced that it has imposed an administrative fine of €290,000 on The Vanguard Group, Inc., one of the world’s largest investment management companies.

According to the official press release, the decision was made due to the group failed to submit voting rights notifications within the prescribed period. The sanction related to a breach of section 130 (1) of the German Act on Breaches of Administrative Regulations (Ordnungswidrigkeitengesetz – OWiG) in conjunction with section 33 (1) sentence 1 of the German Securities Trading Act (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz – WpHG). 

Firms are required to disclose voting rights changes within 4 days after learning about them. Most of these actions are then reported publicly on Bafin’s database. In the case of The Vanguard Group, the regulator stated that the reporting issues associated with the firm’s failure to do further due diligence or notify compliance.

The company may lodge an appeal against the administrative fine order, said the regulator.