Bloomberg agrees to pay a penalty of four million to the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) for breaches of the Quebec Securities Act committed by three of its entities.
Three Bloomberg entities operating multilateral trading systems for various financial products have enabled Quebec participants to transact securities without having been recognized as a stock exchange by the AMF or without having been exempted from this recognition.
In its decision, the Financial Markets Tribunal recalls “that the respect by a domestic or foreign stock exchange, of the obligation to obtain the authorization of the Authority in order to be able to carry on its activities in Quebec and to comply with the conditions imposed by this authorization, is essential to the protection of Quebec investors and to the maintenance of the integrity of the financial center of Quebec ”.
These illegal activities, underlines administrative judge Jean-Pierre Cristel in his decision, involved considerable volumes of securities and derivatives and continued for many years. Bloomberg admitted his wrongs and worked fully with the authorities. The three entities have come to an agreement with the AMF on an administrative penalty of 4 million.
The court ratified the agreement on Tuesday, November 30.