Merrill Lynch Fined $19.8 Million By U.K. Watchdog

Merrill Lynch International has been fined �13.2 million ($19.8 million) over incorrect reporting of transactions, the U.K.'s financial watchdog said Wednesday. The size of the penalty "reflects the severity of MLI's misconduct, failure to adequately address the root causes over several years despite substantial FCA guidance to the industry, and a poor history of transaction-reporting compliance", the Financial Conduct Authority said in a statement. The FCA said it applied a higher level of penalty per line of data in calculating the amount as "past fines have not been high enough to achieve credible deterrence". MLI, which was found to have incorrectly reported more than 35 million transactions, received a reduction in its penalty by agreeing to settle at an early stage of the FCA's investigation. Merrill Lynch is owned by Bank of America Corp. .