Sigma Faces Second FCA Enforcement Over Faulty Transaction Reporting

Sigma Broking Limited has once again found itself in the crosshairs of the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) following a series of failings in its transaction reporting obligations—this time on a scale that has left regulators questioning the firm's fundamental controls. The FCA announced that nearly 100% of Sigma’s transaction reports filed over a five-year period were incorrect, marking the firm’s second major regulatory breach related to reporting failures.

The FCA’s surveillance systems initially detected inconsistencies in the transaction data submitted by Sigma, leading to regulatory engagement in May 2023. The situation quickly escalated when Sigma disclosed in January 2024 that approximately 984,000 reports submitted to the FCA were incorrect. After commissioning an independent review, the firm confirmed in February 2025 that the actual figure stood at 924,584 erroneous submissions—nearly every transaction reported by the firm between 1 December 2018 and 1 December 2023.

The regulator attributed the breach to incorrect configuration of Sigma’s reporting systems, compounded by enduring weaknesses in its internal reporting processes. The failure to detect or rectify the inaccuracies over such a prolonged period has drawn serious concern from the FCA.

Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, did not mince words in his assessment of the case. “The transaction reports we receive are crucial to the work we do in combatting financial crime. Sigma’s failures were serious, sustained and showed a lack of care,” Smart said. “We will take action whenever we identify such failures.”

This is not the first time Sigma has been penalized for similar misconduct. In October 2022, the FCA imposed a £531,600 fine on the firm for previously failing to report 56,000 transactions and for neglecting to flag 97 suspicious trades that occurred between December 2014 and August 2016. That enforcement action also saw three of the firm’s directors sanctioned—two of whom received bans and fines totalling more than £200,000.

The current case took just 16 months from the time it was initiated in April 2024 to reach a public outcome—a marked acceleration compared to the FCA’s average case duration of 42 months for investigations closed during the 2023/24 period. The regulator has pointed to this case as an example of its commitment to expediting enforcement efforts.

Despite the repeated regulatory action, the FCA has not yet confirmed whether further penalties or sanctions will be imposed against Sigma or its senior management in light of this most recent breach. Nonetheless, the magnitude of the failings—and the regulator’s visible frustration—underscore that transaction reporting is not merely a box-ticking exercise but a central pillar in the FCA’s market surveillance and financial crime prevention architecture.

By fLEXI tEAM