London 09/09/2016 - Worldwide Warehouse Solutions (WWS) has agreed to pay a fine of 30,000 pounds to the London Metal Exchange (LME) for an erroneous lead stock report issued earlier this year.
In February, WWS erroneously instructed its London agent to issue new warrants for 1,268 lots of lead at WWS' Vlissingen storage when it had been instructed to reissue warrants that had previously been cancelled, the LME said in a notice today.
The errors were recorded in the LME stock reports, causing the lead stock levels in Vlissingen to be incorrect, the exchange added.
WWS notified the LME of the errors upon discovery some three weeks after they occurred, it said in the notice.
In March, the exchange issued a notice explaining that although 31,700 tonnes of lead in Vlissingen would show in the LME stock report as a delivery out, this was not in actual fact a physical delivery out but a correction of an earlier reporting error by the warehouse.
WWS notified the LME that it had hired an independent auditor to suggest enhanced measures at its Vlissingen location to ensure that the errors do not occur again. WWS also notified the exchange that the measures suggested by the independent auditor had been implemented.
WWS, which is owned by Noble Group, also agreed to pay the costs of the exchange's physical operations department undertaking an audit of the improved measures at WWS' Vlissingen location.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)