The NASD has censured and imposed fines totaling more than US$1.2 million on 18 brokerage firms for violations relating to NASD’s Order Audit Trail (OATS) rules and supervision.

The largest single action was against SG Cowen, LLC of New York, NY, which was censured and fined US$800,000 for failing to report millions of orders over a four-year period.

Firms are required by OATS rules to report specific data elements related to the handling and execution of customer orders and certain proprietary orders for Nasdaq securities, and to synchronize their business clocks.

Apart from SG Cowen, the other firms sanctioned include: Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, Schwab Capital Markets, Credit Suisse First Boston, Carlin Equities Corp., FutureTrade Securities, Pulse Trading, Scottrade, Delta Asset Management Co., Deutsche Bank Securities, Doyle, Miles & Co., Quantlab Securities, BNY Brokerage, Index Securities, Mid-Atlantic Capital Corp., Options Trading Associates, Transcend Capital, and UBS Securities. In concluding these settlements, the firms neither admitted nor denied the charges.

“The enforcement actions announced today are against a wide range of firms for violations such as missing reports, inaccurate data, and failure to correct data after it had been rejected,” said NASD vice chairman Mary Schapiro. “These actions are part of NASD’s ongoing efforts to ensure that the audit trail is complete and accurate. The information reported to OATS enables NASD to recreate the life cycle of an order, substantially enhancing the Nasdaq audit trail and ensuring NASD’s ability to conduct effective market surveillance.”