European Central Bank fines Goldman Sachs €6.6 million

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

Goldman Sachs Bank 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.

A spokesman for Goldman Sachs said the bank recognised the "critical importance of our regulatory reporting obligations" and had "taken all necessary steps to fully remediate this legacy issue".

"We have closely cooperated with the ECB throughout and are pleased to have resolved matters fully," the spokesman said.

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 many US banks.