Robinhood pays $45M to settle SEC violations over reporting and cybersecurity missteps

Robinhood has agreed to pay $45 million in civil penalties to settle costs of securities regulation violations.

In keeping with a Jan. 13 statement, this settlement follows an investigation by the US Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) into the actions of its subsidiaries, Robinhood Securities LLC and Robinhood Monetary LLC.

The penalties embody $33.5 million from Robinhood Securities and $11.5 million from Robinhood Monetary.

The breaches

In keeping with Sanjay Wadhwa, Appearing Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, Robinhood’s failures spanned a number of essential areas, together with inaccurate reporting, poor cybersecurity measures, and insufficient fraud prevention.

Wadhwa said:

“In the present day’s order finds that two Robinhood companies failed to watch a broad array of serious regulatory necessities, together with failing to precisely report buying and selling exercise, adjust to brief sale guidelines, submit well timed suspicious exercise stories, keep books and data, and safeguard buyer info.”

The SEC discovered that these companies did not adjust to numerous regulatory necessities from 2019 to 2022. Among the many violations have been delays in investigating and reporting suspicious transactions between January 2020 and March 2022.

Extra breaches included failing to implement adequate protections in opposition to identification theft from April 2019 to July 2022. A cybersecurity weak point, which endured from June to November 2021, additionally led to unauthorized entry to customers’ information.

The companies have been additional accused of not sustaining correct data of digital communications, a key regulatory requirement.

Robinhood Securities confronted extra scrutiny for points associated to fractional share buying and selling, inventory lending practices, and failures in regulatory reporting. To deal with these issues, the agency agreed to certify that it has carried out measures to stop comparable violations.

Each entities admitted to the SEC’s findings and agreed to be reprimanded. Additionally they dedicated to conducting an inside evaluation to strengthen digital communications compliance.

Robinhood crypto

Though the latest SEC order doesn’t implicate Robinhood’s crypto operations, the agency faces regulatory challenges. Final yr, the agency disclosed receiving a Wells notice from the monetary regulator, signaling potential enforcement motion.

Robinhood’s 2024 report reveals substantial exercise in its crypto section. As of November 2024, the platform recorded $119 billion in crypto buying and selling quantity and managed $38 billion in digital assets under custody.

The corporate additionally revealed that it expanded its crypto choices within the US, including tokens like Solana and Cardano, which pushed the full variety of out there digital property within the area to 20.