StoneX Financial Fined $300K by ICE Futures U.S.

ICE Futures U.S. recently imposed a fine of $300,000 on StoneX Financial Inc. (Stone X), a brokerage company of the diversified global brokerage StoneX Group.

The exchange wrote in the latest disciplinary notice: "On October 18, 2023, a subcommittee of the ICE's Business Conduct Committee ('BCC') determined that StoneX Financial Inc. ('StoneX') may have violated Exchange Rules 4.15(a), 4.15(b), and 4.15(c) by failing to include a unique ID for Registered Operators on certain orders and trades it transmitted to the Exchange."

From February 2018 to August 2022, StoneX, operating as a Futures Commission Merchant, failed to assign, register, and populate unique IDs (Tag 116) for a significant volume of orders executed and transacted on the Exchange.

In addition, Some customers utilizing a third-party front-end trading software were assigned the same generic ID for Tag 116 on orders and trades executed on the Exchange.

Therefore, StoneX may have also breached Rule 4.01(a) by failing to diligently supervise the accurate registration of unique IDs for customers; and 4.01(b) by failing to establish, administer, and enforce supervisory systems, policies, and procedures that are reasonably designed to achieve compliance with Exchange Rules.

Under the conditions of the settlement, wherein StoneX neither admitted nor denied the alleged rule infringements, StoneX consented to pay a financial penalty of $300,000.

This is the second fine received by StoneX Group since the second half of this year. In September, StoneX Markets​, a swap dealer owned by StoneX Group, was fined a civil penalty of $650,000 by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for failing to disclose thousands of Pre-Trade Mid-Market Marks (PTMMMs), violating CFTC's Business Conduct Standards applicable to swap dealers.