British regulators have sanctioned the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) for incorrectly reporting millions of wholesale transactions over a six-year perod.

The bank has been fined £5,620,300 ($8.9 million) by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for incorrectly reporting 44.8 million transactions that it made in wholesale markets between November 2007 and February 2013; and failed altogether to report 804,000 transactions between November 2007 and February 2012. The FCA says that this represents 37% of relevant transactions carried out by RBS in this period, and breaches the rules on transaction reporting and its requirements for firms to have adequate management and controls.

Most of the errors involved using an incorrect reference code, which made it impossible for the FCA systems to identify the counterparties to a transaction. Other inaccuracies included using the wrong timestamp, firm reference number or venue; incorrect prices; duplicate reporting; using incorrect identifiers for over the counter (OTC) derivatives; and incorrect descriptions for OTC derivatives.

The FCA says that many of the problems with RBS’ own systems were compounded by the takeover of ABN Amro Bank N.V. in October 2007. Nevertheless, it says that the bank should have been able to overcome these challenges and ensure adequate systems and controls were in place.

“Effective market surveillance depends on accurate and timely reporting of transactions. We have set out clear guidance on transaction reporting, backed up by extensive market monitoring, and we expect firms to get it right. As well as a financial penalty, firms can expect to incur the cost of resubmitting historically incorrect reports. We will continue to take appropriate action against any firm that fails to meet our requirements,” said Tracey McDermott, the FCA’s director of enforcement and financial crime.

RBS agreed to settle at an early stage of the investigation, and received a 30% reduction of its fine. Without the discount, the fine would have been over £8 million.

($1 = £0.63)