First Associates Investments Inc. and TSE Regulation Services agreed to a settlement Thursday in a case of misplaced registration.

The firm agreed to pay a fine of $7,500 and to pay $2,500 towards the costs of the investigation, and a TSE RS hearing panel has accepted the deal.

The TSE sought the fine alleging that between July 1999 and February 2000, First Associates failed to ensure that one of its employees was approved as an Approved Trader before he was allowed to begin entering orders on the exchange. It therefore failed to ensure that the trader complied with exchange requirements. It also failed to notify the exchange of the new trader in its employ.

The trader in question had worked in the industry since 1985. In 1999 he began working at First Associates. He signed an application for transfer for the IDA, and he was told that he was approved to trade. But there was a mix up between the firm and the IDA, and the transfer was not properly approved.

The problem came to light when the trader phoned the TSE’s equity trading services area to complain about a slow response time on his CATS terminal. It has no record of him as an approved trader. The mistake was then quickly cleared up.