Stockholm, December 2, 2016 — The Disciplinary Committee of Nasdaq Stockholm has found that Fingerprint Cards AB (“Fingerprint Cards”) has breached Nasdaq Stockholm’s regulations (the “Rule Book”) and, accordingly, has imposed a fine on Fingerprint Cards AB amounting to two annual fees, corresponding to an amount of SEK 916.496.
The Disciplinary Committee has found that Fingerprint Cards acted in breach of item 3.1.5 of the Rule Book and in breach of the regulations issued by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, (Finansinspektionen), FFFS 2007:17 when publishing a revenue forecast on December 9, 2015. Furthermore, Fingerprint Cards also breached the same item in the Rule Book through a statement to the media on the same day. Moreover, Fingerprint Cards did not inform the exchange prior to publication of the information, which must be considered potentially significant price sensitive. Finally, Fingerprint Cards is not considered to have met the requirements regarding sufficient capacity for information disclosure, item 2.4.3 of the Rule Book.
The Disciplinary Committee has concluded that Fingerprint Cards did not act in compliance with the Rule Book in a number of situations during 2015 and 2016. Although, to a certain extent, the individual breaches could be considered to be excusable and entail an error committed by the Company’s distribution service, and were outside of the Company’s control, in the assessment of the Disciplinary Committee these violations together with the statements of a previous CEO on Twitter and previous criticism from the Exchange with regard to the company’s information disclosure mean that the Company has not had adequate procedures and systems in place for its information disclosure. Together, these violations cannot be considered minor or excusable and warrant a fine corresponding to two annual fees.
A more detailed description of the case and the Disciplinary Committee’s ruling is published on:
http://www.nasdaqomx.com/listing/europe/surveillance/stockholm/disciplinarycommittee/decisions/
Participating in the Committee’s decision were former Supreme Court Justice Marianne Lundius, Supreme Court Justice Anne-Christine Lindeblad, Company Director Carl-Johan Högbom, Company Director Jack Junel and former Authorized Public Accountant Bo Magnusson.
About the Disciplinary Committee
The role of Nasdaq Stockholm’s Disciplinary Committee is to consider suspicions regarding whether Exchange Members or listed companies have breached the rules and regulations applying on the Exchange. If the Exchange suspects that a member or a listed company has acted in breach of the rules and regulations, the matter is reported to the Disciplinary Committee. The Exchange investigates the suspicions and pursues the matter and the Disciplinary Committee issues a ruling regarding possible sanctions. The sanctions possible for listed companies are a warning, a fine or delisting. The fines that may be imposed range from one to 15 annual fees. The sanctions possible for Exchange Members are a warning, a fine or debarment. Fines paid are not included in the Exchange’s business but are attributed to a foundation supporting research in the securities market. The Disciplinary Committee’s Chairman and Deputy Chairman must be lawyers with experience of serving as judges. At least two of the other members of the Committee must have in-depth insight into the workings of the securities market.
About Nasdaq
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Media Relations Contact: David Augustsson +46 8 405 61 35 david.augustsson@nasdaq.com |