Vanguard fined for providing misleading account statements to its customers

By Jaiveer Shekhawat

(Reuters) -Vanguard Group, the world's largest issuer of mutual funds, was fined and censured by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for errors appearing in about 8.5 million customer account statements.

FINRA, Wall Street's self-regulatory organization, said in a filing signed last month by representatives of both parties that Vanguard overstated projected yield and projected annual income for nine money market funds from November 2019 to September 2020. It ordered Vanguard to pay a fine of $800,000.

"From at least October 2019 to June 2021, certain VMC account statements inaccurately presented market appreciation/depreciation and investment returns," the filing said.

The regulatory organization said Vanguard "accepts and consents" without admitting or denying the findings and the sanctions will come into effect on a later date to be determined by FINRA.

"Vanguard Marketing Corporation takes its regulatory obligations seriously, and the firm is pleased to have resolved this matter," said a spokesperson from Vanguard.

FINRA said a technical issue caused the errors and further added it did not affect customers' actual returns.

Vanguard ultimately corrected the errors in May and June 2021.

After FINRA began its investigation, Vanguard self-reported to the regulatory organization's staff that other errors affected the presentation on certain account statements, according to the filing.

(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)