International derivatives marketplace CME Group has published a notice of disciplinary action as to Société Générale International Limited.

Pursuant to an offer of settlement in which Société Générale International Limited neither admitted nor denied the rule violations or factual findings upon which the penalty is based, on August 30, 2022, a Panel of the Chicago Board of Trade Business Conduct Committee found that on multiple occasions between May 1, 2020, and October 7, 2020, SGIL traders entered orders in Soybean, Chicago Soft Red Winter Wheat, Soybean Oil, Soybean Meal, Corn, Oats, and Kansas City Wheat futures markets through a third-party trading platform for the purpose of filling customer orders upon market open.

The SGIL traders used the platform’s synthetic market-on-open type functionality to fill these orders, and the platform entered and modified crossed-market orders during the pre-open session. These order entries and modifications adversely impacted the Indicative Opening Price.

The Panel also found that while the traders were trained on the use of the third-party trading platform and Exchange rules, SGIL failed to diligently supervise the processing of orders in the marketplace placed using the trading platform in accordance with Exchange rules.

The Panel concluded that SGIL thereby violated CBOT Rule 432.W., and that pursuant to CBOT Rule 433, is strictly liable for the acts of its employees whose conduct violated CBOT Rule 432.Q.

In accordance with the settlement offer, the Panel ordered SGIL to pay a $40,000 fine in connection with this case and companion case CME 20-1385-BC ($20,000 of which is allocated to CBOT).