Quebec’s Financial Markets Authority (AMF) has reached an agreement with Refinitiv Transaction Services Pte. Ltd. pursuant to which the latter will pay an administrative monetary penalty in the amount of $3,500,000 for having carried on business as an exchange in Québec without authorization.

Over a period of more than 18 months, Refinitiv provided institutional Québec participants access to its trading platform to trade in derivatives on without being recognized as an exchange or exempted from recognition by the AMF, in breach of section 12 of the Derivatives Act.

As part of the agreement, Refinitiv admitted to the breach of Québec securities legislation as well as all relevant facts.

Moreover, in order to comply with Québec securities legislation, Refinitiv has filed an application for exemptive relief from recognition as an exchange with the AMF.

The administrative monetary penalty to be paid by Refinitiv reflects its cooperation and prompt efforts in identifying, addressing, and remediating the compliance and supervisory shortcomings that lead to this breach.

The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) is the regulatory and oversight body for Québec’s financial sector.