The National Association of Securities Dealers announced today that it has fined New York’s Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. US$800,000 for failures to respond to regulatory requests for information, failures to properly report municipal securities transactions, and failure to retain business-related internal email.

In addition to the fine, Oppenheimer is obligated to retain, at its own expense, outside counsel to review, modify, and enhance its written supervisory procedures related to reporting municipal securities transactions and responding to regulatory requests for information, including requests from the NASD.

In settling the case, Oppenheimer neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of the NASD’s findings.

“Firms must respond timely and completely to regulatory requests, report transactions timely and accurately, and maintain business-related electronic communications,” said James Shorris, NASD executive vice president and head of enforcement. “Oppenheimer repeatedly failed to comply with these fundamental regulatory obligations.”

The sanctions imposed stem from the settlement of a complaint filed by NASD against Oppenheimer in April 2005. The NASD found that Oppenheimer failed to respond timely and fully to a September 2004 request that it provide information about its retention of electronic communications for 20 employees who traded municipal securities and whose emails were therefore necessary to an NASD investigation into Oppenheimer’s trade reporting deficiencies. It said the firm also failed to promptly respond to an August 2003 request for trade confirmations for municipal securities transactions. The NASD renewed its request for confirmations on three occasions, yet Oppenheimer did not produce all confirmations until more than a year after the original request.

The regulator also found that from January 2003 through May 2004, Oppenheimer failed to promptly report inter-dealer municipal securities transactions and eventually reported hundreds of these transactions inaccurately.