United States SEC Fined Bloomberg $5 Million for Misleading Disclosures of Fixed Income Securities Pricing, Despite Being Aware Clients May Utilize Pricing for Valuing Fixed Income Including Government Bonds, Corporate Bonds & Securitized Products
28th January 2023 | Hong Kong
The United States Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined leading financial information services company Bloomberg $5 million for misleading disclosures of fixed income securities pricing, despite being aware clients (including fund managers) may utilize the pricing to value fixed income assets (Government bonds, corporate bonds & securitized products etc). The fixed income pricing from Bloomberg is via the paid Bloomberg evaluated pricing service (BVAL) which supplies independent & transparent evaluated pricing daily for over 2.7 million securities for all asset classes across the liquidity spectrum, including thinly-traded and hard-to-price fixed income securities. United States SEC: “The SEC’s order finds that from at least 2016 through October 2022, Bloomberg failed to disclose to its BVAL customers that the valuations for certain fixed-income securities could be based on a single data input, such as a broker quote, which did not adhere to methodologies it had previously disclosed. The order finds that Bloomberg was aware that its customers, including mutual funds, may utilize BVAL prices to determine fund asset valuations, including for valuing fund investments in government, supranational, agency, and corporate bonds, municipal bonds and securitized products, and that BVAL prices, therefore, can have an impact on the price at which securities are offered or traded.” Osman Nawaz, Chief of the Division of Enforcement’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit: “Bloomberg has assumed a critical role as a pricing service to participants in the fixed-income markets and it is incumbent on Bloomberg, as well as on other pricing services, to provide accurate information to their customers about their valuation processes. This matter underscores that we will hold service providers, such as Bloomberg, accountable for misrepresentations that impact investors.” See below for United States SEC Statement.
“ United States SEC Fined Bloomberg $5 million for Misleading Disclosures of Fixed Income Securities Pricing, Despite Being Aware Clients May Utilize Pricing for Valuing Fixed Income Including Government Bonds, Corporate Bonds & Securitized Products “
United States SEC Statement
Bloomberg to Pay $5 Million for Misleading Disclosures About Its Valuation Methodologies for Fixed Income Securities
23rd Jan 2023 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Bloomberg Finance L.P. (Bloomberg) for misleading disclosures relating to its paid subscription service, BVAL, which provides daily price valuations for fixed-income securities to financial services entities.
The SEC’s order finds that from at least 2016 through October 2022, Bloomberg failed to disclose to its BVAL customers that the valuations for certain fixed-income securities could be based on a single data input, such as a broker quote, which did not adhere to methodologies it had previously disclosed. The order finds that Bloomberg was aware that its customers, including mutual funds, may utilize BVAL prices to determine fund asset valuations, including for valuing fund investments in government, supranational, agency, and corporate bonds, municipal bonds and securitized products, and that BVAL prices, therefore, can have an impact on the price at which securities are offered or traded.
“Bloomberg has assumed a critical role as a pricing service to participants in the fixed-income markets and it is incumbent on Bloomberg, as well as on other pricing services, to provide accurate information to their customers about their valuation processes,” said Osman Nawaz, Chief of the Division of Enforcement’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit. “This matter underscores that we will hold service providers, such as Bloomberg, accountable for misrepresentations that impact investors.”
The SEC’s order finds that Bloomberg violated section 17(a)(2) of the Securities Act. Without admitting or denying the findings, Bloomberg agreed to cease and desist from future violations and to pay a $5 million penalty. The SEC’s order notes that Bloomberg voluntarily engaged in remedial efforts to make improvements to its BVAL line of business.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Gregory Smolar of the Complex Financial Instruments Unit and Emily Rothblatt of the Chicago Regional Office under the supervision of Natalie Brunson, Ana Petrovic, and Osman Nawaz of the Complex Financial Instruments Unit, with assistance from trial counsel Robert Gordon and Howard Kaplan of the Enforcement Division’s office of Investigative and Market Analytics.
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