UBS Securities Fined $32,500 by Nasdaq for Market Access Control Failures

UBS Securities LLC has agreed to pay a $32,500 fine as part of a settlement with The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, according to the exchange. The firm also accepted a censure.

The penalty resolves allegations that UBS violated Nasdaq rules and federal securities regulations by maintaining market access controls that were not reasonably designed to prevent erroneous orders in warrants. The issue arose because warrants are not subject to Limit Up/Limit Down (LULD) bands.

During the review period from August 29, 2023, to July 16, 2025, UBS's control environment included an anti-redundancy logic. Under this logic, an order that had been paused and reviewed by UBS personnel at the parent-order level for one or more price or size controls would not trigger additional downstream controls at the child-order level. While securities covered by the LULD Plan were subject to an additional LULD-based control, warrants were not.

The LULD Plan is an SEC-approved market mechanism designed to prevent trades in NMS Stocks from occurring outside specified price bands, which are set at a percentage level above and below the average reference price of a security over the preceding five-minute period. Consequently, UBS's market access controls did not include an additional automated control applicable to certain warrant orders once released following review by firm personnel.

Based on these findings, UBS violated Section 15(c)(3), Rules 15c3-5(b) and 15c3-5(c)(1)(ii) thereunder, and Nasdaq Rule General 9, Sections 1(a) and 20(a).