Credit Suisse Agrees to Pay $600,000 for Providing Deficient Fixed-Income Blue Sheet Data

ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING
File No. 3-20040

September 22, 2020 - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC has agreed to settle charges for providing the SEC incomplete and inaccurate securities trading information related to fixed-income transactions for almost four years. Credit Suisse was found liable by the SEC for similar conduct in a 2015 order.

Broker-dealers are required to provide securities trading information - known as "blue sheet data" - which the SEC uses to carry out its enforcement and regulatory obligations, including investigations of insider trading and other fraudulent activity. According to the SEC's order, Credit Suisse's blue sheet submissions regarding fixed-income securities failed to include certain execution level information, such as order execution times, for approximately 2,460 transactions. According to the SEC's order, Credit Suisse did not have reasonable pre-submission controls to validate that the information in its fixed-income submissions was complete and accurate. According to the order, Credit Suisse has engaged in remedial efforts to address the causes for its deficient submissions, including the retention of an outside consultant and the adoption of new policies and procedures for processing blue sheet requests.

The SEC's order found that Credit Suisse willfully violated the broker-dealer books and records and reporting provisions of Section 17(a)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 17a-4(j) and 17a-25 thereunder. The firm admitted the findings in the SEC's cease-and-desist order, agreed to be censured, and to pay a $600,000 civil penalty.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Rachael Clarke, Han Nguyen and Scott A. Thompson of the Market Abuse Unit. The investigation was supervised by Kelly L. Gibson, Director of the SEC's Philadelphia Regional Office, and Joseph G. Sansone, Chief of the SEC's Market Abuse Unit.