Goldman Sachs misreported billions of equity orders over three years, triggering a $1.45 million fine and renewed scrutiny over regulatory compliance.
At a Glance
- Goldman Sachs fined $1.45 million for faulty trade data reporting
- Errors spanned from June 2020 to June 2023, affecting 36.6 billion orders
- A 2021 tech failure led to over 98,000 trade misreports
- Settlement includes additional payments to FINRA and IEX
- Violations undermined critical regulatory surveillance systems
Compliance Breakdown
In a sweeping regulatory action announced on May 14, 2025, Goldman Sachs was fined $1.45 million by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for reporting failures that misrepresented tens of billions of equity trades. From June 2020 through June 2023, the firm inaccurately documented data for approximately 36.6 billion equity orders, a staggering lapse attributed to what FINRA described as “inadvertent coding errors.”
The issue came to a head in late 2021, when a significant technology malfunction severely compromised the accuracy of millions of order memoranda. This breakdown triggered false trade reports for over 98,000 transactions, casting a shadow over the firm’s operational reliability and its compliance with regulatory protocols. The fallout reverberated across FINRA’s Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), a surveillance tool central to reconstructing market activity and detecting malfeasance.
Watch a report: Goldman’s $1.45M Fine Explained.
According to FINRA, inaccurate CAT data undermines the integrity of its surveillance capabilities, obstructing the ability to trace market events and enforce fairness. While the financial penalty may appear modest relative to Goldman’s scale, the reputational consequences could be more profound, especially given heightened regulatory attention to technological systems in trading environments.
Institutional Consequences
As part of the settlement, Goldman agreed to additional payments totaling $1.45 million, with $1.35 million going to FINRA and $95,000 to the Investors’ Exchange LLC (IEX), resolving related compliance breaches. Consistent with industry norms, Goldman Sachs neither admitted nor denied the allegations.
Still, the case underscores persistent vulnerabilities in high-frequency trading systems and raises questions about oversight lapses in even the most elite financial institutions. The errors were not merely administrative—they risked distorting market intelligence and eroding public trust in the mechanisms that ensure equity and accountability in U.S. capital markets.
This action reinforces FINRA’s commitment to upholding data integrity and may set a precedent for stricter enforcement moving forward. As financial firms become increasingly reliant on automated systems, even minor bugs can have massive implications—making vigilance, transparency, and system audits more crucial than ever.
