FINRA Best Execution Fine on Deutsche Bank Securities

On March 8, 2022, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) issued a press release announcing its $2 million fine on Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. (“DBS”). It said that DBS had operated an alternative trading system for about five years known as SuperX. During this time, DBS routed customer orders first to SuperX before routing them to any exchange or dark pool unless the customer opted out. These routings, FINRA said, did not meet the best execution requirement because they resulted in lower fill rates and potentially higher prices than exchange routings and lower quality of execution than for dark pool routings. FINRA reiterated that best execution is one of its core focuses now.