BERLIN: The European Central Bank (ECB) has fined US financial giant Goldman Sachs € 6.63 million euros ($7.2 million) for misreporting its capital needs, it said on Monday.

Goldman Sachs Bank Europe was found to have “breached credit risk reporting rules” in 2019, 2020 and 2021, the ECB said in a statement.

“For eight consecutive quarters, the bank reported lower risk-weighted assets for credit risk than it should have done,” it said.

In particular, Goldman Sachs “misclassified corporate exposures”, the Frankfurt-based institution said.

“Deficiencies in internal controls prevented the bank from detecting this mistake in a timely manner,” it added.

Capital ratios are key indicators of a bank’s strength and ability to absorb losses in the event of market turmoil.

The ECB tightened its supervision of such ratios after the 2008 financial crisis.

It recently said the move had made the European banking sector stronger in the face of fears of contagion over inflation-related struggles facing by many banks of the United States.

The ECB classi-fied Goldman Sachs’ breach as “severe”, the third of five possible levels.

The ECB, which supervises 115 of the eurozone’s largest banks, has imposed some 20 sanctions on private institutions.

In July 2017, it fined the Italian bank Banca Popolare di Vicenza 8.7 million euros for missing requirements in quarterly and annual reports.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2023