Finra fines Goldman Sachs $1.25 million over fingerprinting

The regulator says the firm didn't properly screen more than 1,000 nonregistered employees.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. has censured Goldman Sachs and fined it $1.25 million for failing to fingerprint more than 1,061 nonregistered employees.

Between January 2015 and January 2018, Goldman either failed to timely fingerprint or lacked records to demonstrate it had fingerprinted 5,150 of its nonregistered associated employees, Finra said in a letter of waiver, acceptance and consent.

Most of the 1,061 people the firm failed to fingerprint, Finra said, either transferred from foreign affiliated entities to Goldman operations in the U.S. or were transferees from other firms.

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“As part of its remedial efforts, Goldman was able to fingerprint 1,950 of the 5,150 nonregistered associated persons. However, Goldman was unable to fingerprint 3,200 of the 5,150 individuals because they were no longer associated with the firm, and Goldman could not determine whether those individuals were subject to statutory disqualification,” Finra said.

In its agreement with Finra, Goldman said it would review its systems and procedures regarding the identification, fingerprinting, and screening of nonregistered associated persons.

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