According to FINRA, Vanguard Marketing Corporation was censured and fined $800,000 for providing misleading account statements to customers due to multiple technical errors affecting performance and yield information.

A technical issue prevented newer information from an automated data feed from overwriting certain existing data, causing the firm to fail to update yield data used to calculate estimated yield and annual income figures for money market funds. This caused approximately 8.5 million account statements to overstate estimated yield and estimated annual income. The errors did not affect actual market yields paid to customers or holdings information, which remained correct.

After FINRA began investigating, the firm self-reported additional errors affecting performance information. When customers deposited checks on the last business day of the month, statements incorrectly identified deposits as market value increases instead of cash deposits. The error would auto-correct in the next month's statement as a market value decrease in the same amount. Additionally, margin credits and debits were inaccurately reflected as market appreciation or depreciation for open positions spanning multiple months, auto-correcting when positions closed.

For approximately 50 corporate actions such as stock splits, statements inaccurately reported value differences before and after the action as purchases or withdrawals instead of market appreciation or depreciation. These errors caused inaccurate "Investment Return" calculations.

FINRA also found the firm failed to reasonably investigate red flags. Approximately 50 customers alerted the firm to miscalculated estimated annual yield and income for money market funds, yet the firm failed to promptly investigate. Similarly, the firm received 50 customer communications about deposits being reflected as market value increases and corporate actions being reflected incorrectly but failed to investigate promptly.

This case demonstrates the importance of accurate customer statements and prompt investigation of red flags. Investors rely on account statements to make informed decisions, and firms must ensure statement accuracy and respond promptly to customer concerns about potential errors.