The US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined Deutsche Bank Securities Inc $6 million for failing to provide complete and accurate trade data in an automated format on time.

FINRA and the Securities and Exchange Commission regularly ask for certain trade data, also known as “blue sheets,” to help them investigate market manipulation and insider trading. Federal securities laws and FINRA rules require firms to provide this information to FINRA and other regulators electronically upon request. Blue sheets provide regulators with detailed information about securities transactions, including the security, trade date, price, share quantity, customer name, and whether it was a buy, sale or short sale. They consider this information essential. As part of the settlement, Deutsche Bank has agreed to hire an independent consultant to improve its policies, systems and procedures related to blue sheet submissions.

FINRA found that between 2008 and 2015, if not before, Deutsche Bank failed to compile and produce blue sheet data a great deal. It made programming errors in system logic and the failed to enhance its software to meet regulatory reporting requirements. As a result, it submitted thousands of blue sheets to regulators that misreported or omitted crucial information on more than one million trades.

FINRA has said that a significant number of Deutsche Bank’s blue sheet submissions did not meet regulatory deadlines. Firms typically have ten business days to respond to a blue sheet request. Between January 2014 and August 2015, approximately 40% of Deutsche Bank’s blue sheets arrived after the regulatory deadline and, likewise, in July and August last year, more than 90% were not submitted to FINRA in time.

In settling this matter, Deutsche Bank neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of FINRA’s findings in its writing materials. FINRA’s investigation was conducted by the Office of Fraud Detection and Market Intelligence, and the Department of Enforcement.