ICE Data PRD agrees to pay $8M to settle charges brought by SEC
ICE Data Pricing & Reference Data LLC has agreed to pay $8 million to settle charges brought by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The regulator today charged the global securities pricing service and New for compliance deficiencies relating to its delivery to clients of prices based on quotes it received from a single market participant, also known as single broker quotes.
According to the SEC’s order, from at least 2015 through September 2020, ICE Data PRD delivered to its clients prices based on single broker quotes while failing to adopt and implement policies and procedures reasonably designed to address the risk that these prices would not reasonably reflect the value of the securities. The order further finds that the company’s quality controls for prices based on single broker quotes were not effectively or consistently implemented.
These failures impaired ICE Data PRD’s ability to assess the reliability of quotes it received from market participants and determine whether a quote provider was an accurate source of information. This conduct affected the prices ICE Data PRD provided for more than 40,000 fixed-income securities.
The SEC’s order finds that, due to these failures, ICE Data PRD at times provided clients with prices based on single broker quotes that were inconsistent with the nature of, and that did not reasonably reflect the value of, certain securities.
The order finds that ICE Data PRD failed to adopt and implement written policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent violations of the Investment Advisers Act and its rules.
Without admitting or denying the findings, ICE Data PRD agreed to cease and desist from future violations of the charged provision, to a censure, and to pay an $8 million penalty.