Bluefin Capital Management Settles with Nasdaq for $125,000 Over Reporting Violations

Bluefin Capital Management, LLC has reached a settlement with Nasdaq Phlx LLC, agreeing to pay a $125,000 fine after allegedly violating Nasdaq's rule requirements. The violations stemmed from the firm's failure to properly report order event data to the CAT Central Repository between June 2020 and August 2022.

The issues began when Bluefin reported over 1.4 billion equity and option events from June 2020 to July 2022 with inaccurate data in the Firm Designated ID (FDID) field, a critical component for identifying trading accounts. A configuration error at the firm's reporting agent led to the reporting of the same identifier for all accounts during this period. Bluefin rectified this issue by replacing the reporting agent in July 2022, after it was identified in a March 2022 FINRA exam.

Additionally, Bluefin failed to report more than 1.8 billion option events, including cancellations and modifications, between December 2021 and August 2022. The delay, caused by an error with the reporting agent's system, led to significant linkage errors. Bluefin only updated the system in April 2022 and submitted corrections later in the year.

The firm did not have sufficient written supervisory procedures (WSPs) to prevent or detect violations of the CAT reporting rules, and its internal reviews were found to be inadequate. As a result, Bluefin failed to identify issues such as the FDID reporting error for over two years.

In addition to the fine, Bluefin has also agreed to a censure as part of the settlement.