Pressing F3 To Locate Stocks For Short Selling Earns Goldman Sachs a $15 Million Fine

Goldman Sachs was fined $15 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission for violating securities lending practices. According to the SEC, Goldman Sachs employees routinely processed requests by customers to locate stock for short selling by hitting the F3 button on their keyboard, which would trigger a "fill from autolocate" function based on the amount of start-of-day inventory at major institutions. The SEC pointed out the automated system had already deemed this inventory to be depleted based on local requests processed earlier in the day. "In doing so, the Goldman Sachs employees did not check alternative sources of inventory or perform an adequate review of the securities to be located," the SEC said. Goldman Sachs didn't admit or deny the finding.