The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday assessed a civil money penalty of $27 million against Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A., Bilbao, Spain (BBVA), and its subsidiary, BBVA Securities, Inc., New York, New York (BSI), for exceeding limits on BSI's securities underwriting and dealing activities previously imposed by the Board.
BBVA, a U.S. bank holding company, engages in limited securities underwriting and dealing activities as authorized by the Board under the Bank Holding Company Act. Under that limited authority, a U.S. bank holding company may engage in securities underwriting and dealing activities subject to restrictions on the amount of gross revenues derived from those activities.
However, BBVA improperly classified certain types of revenues in calculating its compliance with these limits. As a result, BBVA exceeded the conditions imposed by the Board on its activities and filed inaccurate reports with the Board.
BBVA took action to correct the violations once it discovered the errors and BSI is now in compliance with the revenue limit and reporting requirements.
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