Admiral Markets AS, the Estonia based Retail FX and CFDs brokerage group with operates the Admirals brand, has issued a statement regarding the decision of Estonia financial regulator Finantsinspektsioon t0 fine the company regarding the reporting of client trades.

The Estonian Financial Supervision Authority has forwarded a misdemeanor decision to Admiral Markets AS, according to which the company has violated the Securities Market Act and Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (EMIR) and a fine of twenty thousand euros has been imposed. According to Admiral Markets AS, the company has made every effort to comply with the reporting obligations.

This is the second run-in Admirals has had recently with the Estonian regulator. Last year the company was fined a larger amount, €32,000, relating to how the broker dealt with negative crude oil prices in April 2020. However that fine was eventually revoked following a successful appeal by Admirals to the Harju County Court.

Admiral Markets AS said that it used the assistance of market-recognized, qualified and professional service providers for reporting. The outsourcing of the reporting service is a common market practice, which is why the company said it has not intentionally disregarded the reporting obligation or acted negligently in fulfilling its obligations.

The company said that it started to correct errors immediately upon detection of errors in reporting, but this was not technically possible within the time allowed for reporting, which also led to late reporting of the transactions. Admirals has made every effort to properly comply with its reporting obligations and to correct any errors identified in cooperation with the service provider.

Admiral Markets AS noted that it has made a significant contribution to improving the quality of reporting by attracting additional people and investing money. In addition, Admiral Markets AS has decided to change its reporting service provider.

According to the European Securities and Markets Authority, the situation regarding timely technical reporting obligation is the same across Europe.