Justly Markets Fined $100,000 by FINRA for Missing Records of 95 Million Orders

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has fined private securities placement platform Justly Markets (formerly known as DBOT ATS) $100,000 for failing to preserve its records of more than 95 million orders it received form its broker-dealer customer between April 2017 and October 2019. records of more than 95 million orders from merchant customers. This conduct violated certain sections of FINRA rules as well as the provisions of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

According to further disclosures by the regulator, the platform also failed to establish a properly designed regulatory system, including written supervisory procedures, to comply with its recordkeeping requirements.

FINRA explained in a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent (AWC) published on Tuesday that Justly Markets utilized a third-party service provider to preserve its order memoranda between May 1, 2018, and October 31, 2019. But when the company switched to another service provider in October 2019, the original vendor deleted the company's order records.

"The firm had not otherwise preserved the records," the regulator said. "Therefore, Respondent (Justly Markets) violated Section 17(a) of the Exchange Act, Exchange Act Rule 17a-4(b)(1), and FINRA Rules 4511 and 2010."

"the firm had no policies or procedures, and did not conduct any supervisory reviews, to ensure that the firm made and kept current (or reviewed the accuracy of), preserved order memoranda," FINRA added.

Justly Markets paid the fine without admitting or denying its violations.

This is not the first monetary sanction issued by FINRA this month. Last week, the US watchdog fined Wells Fargo Securities​ $200,000 for overstating its trading volumes, shortly after Citigroup​' paying a fine of $1.5 million to settle with FINRA.