Item 1A.    Risk Factors

Certain Factors That May Affect Our Financial Condition and Results of Operations

        We face risks and uncertainties that may affect our financial condition and results of operations. The following risk factors should be considered in evaluating our business and growth outlook and may be important to understanding any statement in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. These risk factors should be read in conjunction with Part II, Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations , and the consolidated financial statements and related notes in Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data , of this Form 10-K.

Decreases in equity trading activity by active fund managers and declining securities prices could harm our business and profitability.

        Declines in the trading activity of active fund managers generally result in lower revenues from our trading solutions, which generate the majority of our revenues globally. In addition, securities' price declines adversely affect our trading commissions outside North America, which are based on the value of transactions. The demand for our trading solutions is directly affected by factors such as economic, regulatory and political conditions that may lead to decreased trading activity and prices in the securities markets in the U.S. and in all of the foreign markets we serve. Significant flows of funds out of actively-managed equity funds has curtailed their trading activity, which has weighed heavily on our buy-side trading volumes and the use of our higher value services. Volatility levels also impact the amount of trading activity. Sustained periods of low volatility can result in lower levels of trading activity. In addition, trading activity in periods following extreme levels of volatility tends to decline.

Decreases in our commission rates and other transactional revenues could adversely affect our operating results.

        Commission rates on institutional trading activity have declined historically and we anticipate a continuation of the competitive pricing environment for the foreseeable future. In addition, reduced activity from our active fund manager clients has resulted in a shift in the mix of our business to include an increased portion from higher-turnover lower-rate clients, particularly sell-side firms. A

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decline in commission rates or revenue capture from future mix shifts or from rate reductions within client segments could materially reduce our margins and harm our financial condition and operating results.

Our fixed costs may result in reduced profitability or losses.

        We incur significant operating and capital expenditures to support our business that do not vary directly, at least in the short term, with fluctuations in executed transaction volumes or revenues. In addition, changes in market practices have required us, and may require us in the future, to invest in additional infrastructure to increase capacity levels without a corresponding increase in revenues. To ensure that we have the capacity to process projected increases in trade orders and executed transaction volumes, we have historically made substantial infrastructure investments in advance of such projected increases, including during periods of low revenues. We have also made substantial investments in our research products to attract additional trade flows from our buy-side clients. In the event of reductions in trade executions and/or revenues, we may not be able to reduce such expenses quickly and, as a result, we could experience reduced profitability or losses. If the growth in our executed volumes does not occur or we are not able to successfully implement and monetize our investments, including by failing to accurately forecast the demand for new products, effectively deploy new products or decommission legacy products, the expenses related to such investments could cause reduced profitability or losses.

A failure in the design, operation or configuration of our technology could adversely affect our profitability and reputation.

        A technological failure or error of one or more of our products or systems, including but not limited to POSIT, our algorithms, smart routers, and order and execution management systems, could result in lost revenues and/or significant market losses. We operate complex trading systems, algorithms and analytical products that may fail to correctly model interacting or conflicting trading objectives, unusual market conditions, available trading venues and other factors, which may cause unintended results. Similarly, the operation and configuration of our systems can be quite complex and departure from standard procedures can result in adverse trading outcomes. Such problems could cause us to incur trading losses, lose clients or experience other reputational harm resulting in lost revenues and profits. Our quality assurance testing cannot test for all potential scenarios or ensure that the technology will function as designed and intended in all cases.

Failure to keep up with rapid changes in technology while continuing to seek to provide leading products and services to our customers could negatively impact our results of operations.

        The institutional brokerage industry is subject to rapid technological change and evolving industry standards. Our customers' demands become greater and more sophisticated as the dissemination of products and information to customers increases. If we are unable to anticipate and respond to the demand for new services, products and technologies, innovate in a timely and cost-effective manner and adapt to technological advancements and changing standards, we may be unable to compete effectively, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Many of our competitors have significantly greater resources than we do to fund such technological advances. Moreover, the development of technology-based services is a complex and time-consuming process. New products and enhancements to existing products can require long development and testing periods. Budgetary constraints on funding new product initiatives related to our core business or strategic initiatives in the current environment, significant delays in new product releases, failure to meet key deadlines, or significant problems in creating new products could negatively impact our revenues and profits.

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Insufficient system capacity, system operating failures, or disasters could materially harm our reputation, financial position and profitability.

        The success of our business is dependent on the computer and communications systems supporting our operations, which must monitor, process and support a large volume of transactions across numerous execution venues in many countries and multiple currencies. As our business continues to expand, we will need to continue to expand our systems to accommodate an increasing volume of transactions across a larger client base and more geographical locations. In addition, certain changes in market practices may require us to invest in infrastructure to increase capacity levels. Unexpectedly high volumes or times of unusual market volatility could cause our systems to operate slowly, decrease output or even fail for periods of time, as could general power or telecommunications failures, hardware failures, software errors, data center outages, human error, computer viruses, acts of vandalism, natural disasters, terrorist activities, cybersecurity breaches or other business disruptions. System failure or degradation could adversely affect our ability to effectuate transactions and lead our customers to file formal complaints with industry regulatory organizations, initiate regulatory inquiries or proceedings, file lawsuits against us, trade less frequently through us or cease doing business with us. In turn, we could incur financial loss, liability to clients, regulatory intervention or reputational damage.

        Our corporate headquarters and largest concentration of employees and technology is in the New York metropolitan area. Our other offices are also located in major cities around the globe. If a business system disruption were to occur, especially in New York, for any reason, including widespread health emergencies, natural disasters or terrorist activities, and we were unable to execute our disaster recovery plan, or our disaster recovery plan proves insufficient, it could have a material effect on our business. Moreover, we have varying levels of disaster recovery plan coverage among our non-U.S. subsidiaries.

        Any system capacity or operational failure or business system disruption could result in regulatory or legal claims. We could incur significant costs in defending such regulatory or legal claims, even those without merit. Moreover, such failures could result in the need to remediate issues and repair or expand our networks and systems. Any obligation to expend significant resources to defend claims or repair and expand infrastructure could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Our systems and those of our third-party service providers may be vulnerable to cybersecurity risks.

        Our business relies on the secure collection, storage, processing and transmission of proprietary information, including our clients' confidential data, in our internal systems and through our vendor networks and communications infrastructure. Increased cybersecurity threats pose a risk to this information, in addition to our and our third party service providers' systems and networks. While we have not been the victim of cyber-attacks that have had a material impact on our operations or financial condition, we have experienced cyber security incidents such as denial of service attempts, malware infections, phishing attempts, and other attempts at compromising our information technology that are typical for a company of our size that operates in the global financial marketplace. Despite our efforts to implement industry-standard security measures, we face the risk that our security measures may prove insufficient as attacks have resulted in material breaches against other financial services companies with significant security controls. Successful security breaches of our systems or the systems of certain of our vendors could expose us to a risk of misappropriation of our or our clients' confidential information, the corruption or deletion of data, and the disruption of our services to our clients. These outcomes could result in reputational damage, loss of clients, lower trading volumes, a negative impact on our competitive position, significant expense in implementing future security measures, litigation, and regulatory inquiries or proceedings, all of which could adversely impact our financial results.

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We are dependent on certain third party vendors for key services.

        We depend on a number of third parties to supply elements of our trading systems, computers, market and research data, data centers, FIX connectivity, communication network infrastructure, clearance and settlement, other equipment and related support and maintenance. We cannot be certain that any of these providers will be willing or able to continue to provide these services in an efficient and cost-effective manner or to meet our evolving needs. Moreover, we are dependent on our communications network providers for interconnectivity with our clients, markets and clearing agents to service our customers and operate effectively. If our vendors fail to meet their obligations, provide poor, inaccurate or untimely service, or we are unable to make alternative arrangements for the supply of these services, we may fail, in turn, to provide our services or to meet our obligations to our customers, and our business, financial condition and our operating results could be materially harmed.

Our securities business and related clearing operations expose us to material liquidity risk.

        We self-clear equity transactions in the U.S., Hong Kong and Australia. In those markets, we may be required to provide considerable additional funds with clearing and settlement organizations, such as the National Securities Clearing Corporation or Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation in the U.S., especially during periods of high market volatility. In addition, regulatory agencies have recently required these clearing and settlement organizations to increase the level of margin deposit requirements and they may continue to do so in the future. We rely on our excess cash, certain established credit facilities and the use of outsourced clearing arrangements to meet or reduce those demands. While we have historically met requests for additional margin deposits, there is no guarantee that our excess cash and our established credit facilities and clearing arrangements will be sufficient for future needs, particularly if there is an increase in requirements. There is also no guarantee that these established credit facilities will be extended beyond their expiration.

        In addition, each of our broker-dealer subsidiaries worldwide is subject to regulatory capital requirements promulgated by the applicable regulatory and exchange authorities of the countries in which they operate. Growth in our non-North American trading activity has led, and could continue to lead to, higher regulatory capital requirements. The failure by any of these subsidiaries to maintain its required regulatory capital may lead to suspension or revocation of its broker-dealer registration and its suspension or expulsion by its regulatory body. Historically, all regulatory capital needs of our broker-dealers have been provided by existing cash and cash from operations. However, if existing cash together with cash from operations are not sufficient, we may need to reject orders from clients and we may ultimately breach regulatory capital requirements.

As a clearing member firm in certain jurisdictions we are subject to significant default risk.

        We are required to finance our clients' unsettled positions from time to time and we could be held responsible for the defaults of our clients. Default by our clients may also give rise to our incurring penalties imposed by execution venues, regulatory authorities and settlement systems. Although we regularly review our credit exposure, default risk may arise from events or circumstances that may be difficult to detect or foresee. In addition, concerns about, or a default by, one institution could lead to significant liquidity problems, losses or defaults by other institutions that could in turn adversely affect us.

Our equity trading operations in jurisdictions other than the U.S., Hong Kong and Australia are dependent on their clearing agents and any failures by such clearing agents could materially impact our business and operating results.

        Certain of our international operations are dependent on agents for the clearing and settlement of securities transactions. If our agents fail to properly facilitate the clearing and settlement of our

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customer trades, we could be subject to financial, legal and regulatory risks and costs that may impact our business and operating results. In addition, it could cause our clients to reduce or cease their trading with us, which would adversely affect our revenues and financial results.

        Moreover, certain of our agreements with clearing agents may be terminated upon short notice. There is no guarantee that we could obtain alternative services in a timely manner and any interruption of the normal course of our trading and clearing operations could have a material impact on our business and results of operations.

Our business exposes us to credit risk that could affect our operating results and profitability.

        We are exposed to credit risk from third parties that owe us money, securities or other obligations, including our customers and trading counterparties. These parties may default on their obligations to us due to bankruptcy, lack of liquidity, operational failure or other reasons, and we could be held responsible for such defaults. In addition, client trading errors which they are unable or unwilling to cover may cause us to incur financial losses. Volatile securities markets, credit markets and regulatory changes may increase our exposure to our customers' credit profiles, which could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results. While our broker-dealer subsidiaries that are not self-clearing have clearing agreements with their clearing agents who review the credit risk of trading counterparties, we have no assurances that those reviews or our own are adequate to provide sufficient protection from this risk.

We may incur material losses on foreign exchange transactions entered into on behalf of clients and be exposed to material liquidity risk due to counterparty defaults or errors.

        We enable clients to settle cross-border equity transactions in their local currency through the use of foreign exchange contracts. These arrangements typically involve the delivery of securities or cash to a counterparty that is not processed through a central clearing facility in exchange for a simultaneous receipt of cash or securities. We may operate as either a principal or agent in these transactions. As a result, a default by one of our counterparties prior to the settlement of their obligation could materially impact our liquidity and have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

        In addition, we are exposed to operational risk. Employee and technological errors in executing, recording or reporting foreign exchange transactions may result in material losses due to the large size of such transactions and the underlying market risk in correcting such errors.

We incur principal trading risk in our Canadian Operations.

        A limited portion of our revenues is derived from principal trading in our Canadian Operations, including arbitrage trading and the net spread on foreign exchange contracts executed to facilitate equity trades by clients in different currencies. As a result of this trading, we may incur losses relating to the purchase or sale of securities and currencies for our own account. Although we attempt to close out all of our positions by the end of the day, we bear the risk of market fluctuations and we may incur losses due to changes in the prices of such securities and currencies. Any principal gains or losses resulting from these positions could have a disproportionate effect, positive or negative, on our revenues and profits, and could also result in reputational damage.

        Our Canadian Operations also derive a limited portion of its revenues from the principal trading of spot and short-dated forward foreign exchange contracts with clients, unrelated to equity trades. Although we seek to execute offsetting foreign exchange contracts concurrently with any client trades, earning a net spread, there can be no assurances that the trades are in fact concurrent (and therefore we bear the risk of market fluctuations). In addition, foreign exchange contracts are not centrally cleared and therefore we bear counterparty and settlement risk on such trades.

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Our Canadian market making activities expose us to the risk of significant losses.

        ITG Canada is registered as a market maker in a limited number of ETFs and inter-listed stocks. In our role as a market maker, we are required to maintain active bids and offers that may be executed against, resulting in inventory positions that subject us to market risk. There can be no assurance that we will be able to manage such risk successfully or that we will not experience significant losses from such activities.

Our risk management policies and procedures may not be effective and may leave us exposed to unidentified or unexpected risks.

        We seek to monitor and control our risk exposure through a risk and control framework encompassing a variety of separate but complementary financial, credit, operational, technological, compliance and legal reporting systems, internal controls, management review processes and other mechanisms that rely on a combination of technical and human controls and supervision. These policies, procedures and practices used to identify, monitor and control a variety of risks may fail to be effective. As a result, we face the risk of losses, including, for example, losses resulting from trading errors, customer defaults, fraud and money laundering.

        Internal control over financial reporting, no matter how well designed, has inherent limitations. Therefore, internal control over financial reporting determined to be effective can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to financial statement preparation and may not prevent or detect all misstatements. Moreover, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. As such, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which may have a material adverse effect on our stock price.

The business in which we operate is extremely competitive worldwide.

        Many of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources than we do, which, among other things, enable them to compete with the services we provide on the basis of price, including lowering prices for certain of our key services to gain business in their higher margin areas, and a willingness to commit their firms' capital to service their clients' trading needs on a principal, rather than on an agency basis. In addition, many of our competitors bundle multiple services as part of their equity trading offering. To the extent we seek to unbundle any of our products or services, we may lose clients, which would also result in a loss of revenues and profits. Many of our competitors offer a wider range of services, have broader name recognition, and have larger customer bases than we do. Some of our competitors have long-standing, well-established relationships with their clients, and also hold dominant positions in their trading markets. Moreover, new entrants may enter the market with alternative methods of providing trade execution and related services, and existing competitors often launch new initiatives. Many of our competitors have undertaken measures to link various electronic trading systems and platforms in an effort to attract order flow to off-exchange venues and increase internal executions.

        Although we believe that our products and services have established certain competitive advantages, our ability to maintain these advantages will require continued enhancements to our products, investment in the development of our services, additional marketing activities and enhanced customer support services. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will have sufficient resources to continue to make investments in development of our services, that our competitors will not devote significantly more resources to competing services or that we will otherwise be successful in maintaining our market position. If competitors offer superior services, our market share would be affected and this would adversely impact our business and results of operations.

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We face certain challenges and risks to our international business that may adversely affect our strategy.

        Global client coverage is a key component of our business plan. We have invested significant resources in our foreign operations and the globalization of our products and services. However, there are certain risks inherent in the operation of our business outside of the U.S., including, but not limited to, additional regulatory capital requirements, less developed technology and infrastructure, and higher costs for infrastructure. These risks may limit our ability to provide services to clients in certain markets. There also may be difficult processes for obtaining regulatory approvals. This could result in delays in our global business plans, difficulties in staffing foreign operations and adapting our products to foreign markets, practices and languages, exchange rate risks and the need to meet foreign regulatory requirements. Each of these could force us to alter our operational plans and this may adversely impact our strategy.

We incur risks related to our international business due to currency exchange rate fluctuations that could impact our financial results and financial position.

        We have significant operations outside of the U.S. generating approximately 38% of our revenues in 2015. We currently operate and continue to expand globally, principally through our operations in Canada, Europe and Asia Pacific as well as through the development of specially tailored versions of our services to meet the needs of our clients who trade in international markets. We therefore have significant exposure to currency exchange rate fluctuations primarily between the U.S. Dollar and the British Pound Sterling, Euro, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar and Hong Kong Dollar. When the U.S. Dollar strengthens against these currencies, the U.S. Dollar value of non-U.S. Dollar-based revenue and profit decreases. These fluctuations may materially impact the translation of our non-U.S. results of operations and financial condition into U.S. dollars as part of the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.

We are dependent on certain major customers and a decline in their use of our services could materially impact our revenues.

        Our customers may discontinue their use of our trading services at any time. The loss of any significant customer could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

        The chart below sets forth our dependence on our three largest clients individually, as well as on our ten largest clients in the aggregate, expressed as a percentage of total revenues:

The securities markets and the brokerage industry in which we operate globally are subject to extensive, evolving regulation that could materially impact our business.

        We currently operate POSIT in the U.S. under Regulation ATS, our European operations are subject to MiFID and we must comply with the requirements of the U.S. PATRIOT Act and its foreign equivalents for monitoring our customers and suspicious transactions. Moreover, most aspects of our broker-dealer operations are highly regulated, such as sales and reporting practices, operational compliance, capital requirements and licensing of employees. Accordingly, we face the risk of significant intervention by regulatory authorities in all jurisdictions in which we conduct business, such

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as the SEC and FINRA in the U.S. and their equivalents in other countries. As we expand our business, we may be exposed to increased and different types of regulatory requirements.

        We are subject to, and in the future, we may become subject to new regulations or changes in the interpretation or enforcement of existing regulations, which may adversely affect our business. Also, regulatory changes that impact how our customers conduct their business may impact our business and results of operations. The current U.S. administration and other members of the U.S. federal government and other governments outside of the United States have implemented new regulatory requirements for the financial services industry and have indicated that there may be more to come. These newly-implemented rules could cause us to expend more significant compliance, business and technology resources, incur additional operational costs and create additional regulatory exposure. In addition, we cannot predict the extent to which any future regulatory changes would affect our business.

        On June 24, 2014, the SEC issued an order mandating the U.S. exchanges to implement the National Market System Plan to Implement a Tick Size Pilot Program (the "Pilot"). The plan for the Pilot was released by 11 national exchanges and FINRA on August 25, 2014 and it was published in the Federal Register on November 7, 2014. The comment period for the Pilot ended on December 22, 2014 and the plan was approved on May 6, 2015 with an implementation date of May 6, 2016. The SEC subsequently extended the implementation date to October 3, 2016. The Pilot will last for two years and it will change the minimum 'tick sizes' (quoting and trading increments) for 1,200 Regulation NMS common stocks with small market capitalizations. The plan also includes a 'trade-at' prohibition for 400 of the Regulation NMS stocks covered by the Pilot that would prevent price matching by a trading center, such as a dark pool, that is not displaying a protected bid or protected offer, subject to certain exceptions. The Pilot is intended to allow the SEC, SROs, and the public to evaluate and assess the impact of increment conventions on the liquidity and trading of stocks of small capitalization companies. If the Pilot (specifically the trade-at prohibition) is expanded to more securities, the program could reduce our U.S. trading volumes. Moreover, the SEC adopted the Consolidated Audit Trail rule ("CAT") in July 2012, which requires SROs to establish an order trail reporting system that would enable regulators to track, within 24 hours of the trade date, information related to trading orders received and executed across the securities markets. The exchanges and FINRA submitted a national market system plan for implementation of the CAT to the SEC for approval on September 30, 2014, and submitted amendments to the plan to the SEC on February 27, 2015 and December 23. After the plan is published by the SEC for public comment and the SEC approves the plan, the implementation schedule is based on the SEC approval date. Within one year of SEC approval, each exchange will start reporting CAT data to the established central repository. As a non-small industry member, we will be required to start reporting CAT data within two years of approval.

        On November 19, 2014, the SEC unanimously adopted Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity ("Regulation SCI"). The regulation became effective on February 3, 2015 and the compliance date was November 3, 2015. The rule requires SCI entities (i.e., exchanges, SROs, clearing and settlement agencies, and certain ATSs) to establish extensive policies, procedures, and/or controls to ensure the capacity, stability, integrity, and resiliency of their trading and regulatory reporting systems. Regulation SCI, among other things, also requires the reporting of certain systems issues, testing of business continuity and disaster recovery plans with mandatory participation by customers and members, the establishment of geographically diverse backup capabilities, the completion of an objective annual review of systems, and the maintenance and preservation of certain books and records concerning matters covered by the rule. To the extent Regulation SCI is applicable to us (as a result of POSIT or otherwise), we could experience significant implementation costs as well as increased ongoing administrative expenses and burdens.

        In addition, new regulatory obligations have been proposed, adopted or implemented pertaining to markets outside of the United States, which may also have a material impact upon our business model.

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•

In Europe, these include MiFID II which is currently in the rulemaking process with implementation planned for January 2018. In particular, under MiFID II, MTFs—the European equivalent to an SEC-registered ATS—that trade in dark cash equity orders would be required to cross such orders at the midpoint, open, or closing prices of the primary venue (where displayed orders in those securities are traded) and adhere to volume limits on dark trading. These limits would be set at 4% of all the displayed and dark regulated venue trading volume for any individual dark venue and 8% of such volume for all dark trading venues in the aggregate. The calculations would be performed at an individual stock level over a 12-month rolling period. In the event that the relevant limit is breached, the crossing of that particular stock in the individual dark trading venue or in all such venues (as applicable depending on whether the 4% or 8% threshold is breached) would cease for the following 6 months. MiFID II provides an exception from these requirements for large sized orders, which may be crossed at any price point and without regard to the above-mentioned volume limits.

In addition, a financial transaction tax (the "European FTT") is being considered which would include at least ten of the twenty-eight members of the European Union. In addition to the impact that such tax would have on the affected securities and signatory countries, certain alternative versions of the proposals could include an extra-territorial scope that may impact the trading activities of entities which are, and trade entirely outside, the European FTT zone. Ministers from the relevant member states have reiterated that they intend to publish a draft legislative text for the European FTT during the first quarter of 2016.

•

On December 1, 2015, the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong implemented new regulations under the Code of Conduct for Persons Licensed by or Registered with the Securities and Futures Commission (the "Hong Kong Code") in relation to Alternative Liquidity Pools ("ALPs"). ITG Hong Kong Limited operates an ALP called POSIT in respect of a number of exchanges in Asia Pacific. The new regulations under the Hong Kong Code limit access to ALPs to qualified investors only, require increased monitoring of ALPs, mandatory disclosure of the operation of ALPs and increased client documentation for those accessing ALPs via a Hong Kong broker.

        Compliance with certain of these adopted laws, rules or regulations of the various jurisdictions in which we operate could result in the loss of revenue and has caused us, and could cause us, to incur significant costs. In addition, if any new regulatory obligations are implemented, ITG could incur significant costs to establish the appropriate processes, systems, and/or controls. Last, if we fail to comply adequately with any of these laws, rules or regulations, we may be subject to censure, fines, cease-and-desist orders, suspension of our business, suspensions of personnel, or other sanctions, including revocation of our exchange or self-regulatory organization memberships or our broker-dealer registrations.

Increased regulatory scrutiny has led to, and will continue to lead to, increased costs associated with responding to investigations and inquiries and the potential for penalties and necessary remediation, which we expect to negatively impact our profitability and could harm our reputation.

        In recent years, there has been increased regulatory scrutiny of our industry by regulators and other governmental authorities, including, among other things, in the areas of trading risk management controls, market abuse, undisclosed trading practices and dark pool operations, resulting in an increase in regulatory investigations and reviews. We, like others in the industry, are subject to ongoing investigations and reviews. Such enhanced scrutiny has caused, and we expect it to continue to cause, ITG to incur significant costs in light of the legal and compliance resources needed to respond to such investigations and reviews, in addition to monetary penalties and increased compliance costs, that could arise from such investigations and reviews. Such regulatory or other actions may also be directed at certain executives or employees who may be critical to our businesses. The risks associated with such

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matters is often difficult to assess or quantify, and their existence and magnitude often remain unknown or uncertain for substantial periods of time. A settlement of, or judgment related to, any such matters could result in civil or criminal liability, penalties, fines, restrictions or limitations on our operations and activities and other sanctions, could lead to related private litigation and could otherwise have a material adverse effect on our businesses, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. Any such action could also cause us significant reputational harm. In addition, regardless of the outcome of such matters, we have incurred and will continue to incur significant legal and other costs, including substantial management time, dealing with such matters.

Our business has been and may continue to be adversely affected by our customers' reaction to our SEC Settlement.

        In August 2015, we paid $20.3 million to settle the SEC's investigation into a proprietary trading pilot operated in 2010 and 2011 (the "SEC Settlement"). As further disclosed in Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations , our results reflect the significant negative impact on our business from the SEC Settlement. Our customers' reaction to the SEC Settlement has resulted in, and may continue to result in, reputational and financial harm, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company.

The circumstances relating to the SEC Settlement could subject us to additional actions, including purported class action litigation.

        Two putative class action lawsuits have been filed and have since been consolidated into a single action before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the Company and certain of its current and former executives in connection with the SEC Settlement. In addition, a purported shareholder of the Company filed a shareholder derivative action against eleven current or former officers and directors of the Company in the Supreme Court for the State of New York. The Company is named as a nominal defendant, and the plaintiff purports to seek recovery on its behalf. The complaint generally alleges that the individual defendants breached their fiduciary duties to the Company in connection with the matters that were the subject of the SEC Settlement. Our former Chief Executive Officer has also filed a Demand for Arbitration before the American Arbitration Association against the Company. The statement of claim seeks an award of damages and equity valued at approximately $13.0 million, $5.0 million of which are actual and punitive damages relating to the former Chief Executive Officer's defamation claim. Any further actions based on the circumstances relating to the SEC Settlement, including any governmental investigations or private litigation, and the defense and any related settlement thereof, could have a material adverse effect on the Company's consolidated financial position or on the results of operations for any particular period, and may result in significant ongoing expenses.

If we are unable to obtain sources of data to create our differentiated research product, we could see a reduction in revenues and profitability.

        Our investment research product leverages data derived from, among other sources, industry data providers and web harvesting technology. If there is a limitation on the availability of data from these sources or if new regulations or laws restrict their use in investment research products, the quality of our research product could be negatively impacted along with the amount of revenue and profitability we derive from this offering.

We could be subject to challenges by U.S. and foreign tax authorities that could result in additional taxes and penalties.

        We are subject to income and other taxes in each jurisdiction in which we operate. We are also subject to reviews and audits by U.S. and foreign tax authorities. Our determination of our tax

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obligations in each jurisdiction requires us and our advisers to make judgment calls and estimations. Our determination may differ, even materially, from the judgment of the tax authorities and therefore cause us to incur additional taxes and related interest and penalties, which could impact our financial results.

Inability to protect our intellectual property may result in increased competition, loss of business or other negative results on our business and financial condition.

        Our success is dependent, in part, upon our proprietary intellectual property. We generally rely upon patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets to establish and protect our rights in our proprietary technology, methods, products and services. We cannot assure that any of the rights granted under any patent, copyright or trademark that we may obtain will protect our competitive advantages. A third party may still try to challenge, invalidate or circumvent the protective mechanisms that we select. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the U.S., so we cannot predict our ability to properly protect our intellectual property in those jurisdictions. Third parties operating in jurisdictions in which we have not filed for protection may obtain rights in intellectual property that we have protected in the U.S. and other jurisdictions or may be able to misappropriate our intellectual property with impunity.

        Additionally, we might not detect the unauthorized use of our intellectual property. If we do detect unauthorized use, enforcing our infringed intellectual property rights may require significant resources. Accordingly, we might choose not to enforce our infringed intellectual property rights, depending on factors like the best use of our limited resources, the value of our infringed intellectual property rights and other outcomes peripherally related to our attempted enforcement.

        There can be no assurance that we will be able to protect our proprietary intellectual property from improper disclosure or use, or that others will not develop technologies that are similar or superior to our technology without violating our intellectual property. Violations of our intellectual property by third parties could have an adverse effect on our competitiveness and business. In addition, the cost of seeking to enforce our intellectual property rights could have an adverse effect on our financial results.

If we were to unknowingly infringe third party intellectual property or be accused of doing so without merit, we would bear significant costs of defense and litigation, which could impact our financial results.

        Under current law, U.S. patent applications remain secret for 18 months and may, depending on how they are prosecuted, remain secret until the issuance of a patent. In light of these factors, it is not always possible to determine in advance whether any of our products or services may infringe the present or future patent rights of others. There can be no guarantee that we will be aware of all patents and trademarks that might pose a risk of infringement by our services. From time to time, we may receive notices from others of claims or potential claims of intellectual property infringement or we may be called upon to defend our products, customers, vendees or licensees against such third party claims. Responding to these kinds of claims, regardless of merit, could consume valuable time and result in costly litigation that could have a material adverse effect on us. Such claims could also result in our entering into royalty or licensing agreements with the third parties claiming infringement on terms that could have a material impact on our profitability.

Our strategic transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, and strategic initiatives, may not result in anticipated benefits and may present risks not originally contemplated, which may adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

        Over the last several years, we have undertaken several strategic transactions, including the acquisitions of RFQ-hub, a multi-asset platform for global-listed and OTC financial instruments,

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Majestic Research Corp. and Ross Smith Energy Group, Ltd. (which together became ITG Investment Research), as well as the subsequent disposition of the energy research business. We have also undertaken various organic strategic initiatives. We may elect to pursue strategic transactions and strategic initiatives in the future, including as a result of our new Chief Executive Officer's end-to-end review of our business, clients, people and processes which is expected to be completed by the end of July 2016. Acquisitions entail numerous risks, including but not limited to difficulties in valuing the acquired businesses, combining personnel and firm cultures, integrating acquired products, services and operations, achieving anticipated synergies that were inherent in our valuation assumptions, the assumption of unknown material liabilities of acquired companies and the potential loss of key clients or employees of acquired companies. Any disposition may result in decreased earnings, revenue, or cash flow and potential liabilities may arise under law as a result of the disposition. Strategic initiatives, such as our recently-launched trading platforms for fixed income and foreign exchange, may be important to our business prospects but we may not be able to successfully execute such initiatives. Failure to execute on strategic transactions or initiatives in a satisfactory manner could adversely affect our future results of operations and financial condition.

Our business could be adversely affected by our inability to attract and retain talented employees, including sales, technology and development professionals.

        Our business operations require highly specialized knowledge of the financial industry and of technological innovation as it applies to the financial industry. If we are unable to hire or retain the services of talented employees, including executive officers, other key management and sales, research, technology and development professionals, we would be at a competitive disadvantage. In addition, recruitment and retention of qualified staff could result in substantial additional costs. The loss of the services of one or more of our executive officers or other key professionals or our inability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel, could have a material adverse effect on our ability to operate our business.

Misconduct and errors of our employees could cause us reputational and financial harm.

        Employee errors in recording or executing transactions for customers can cause us to enter into transactions that customers may disavow and refuse to settle. These transactions expose us to risk of loss, which can be material, until we detect the errors in question and unwind or reverse the transactions. As with any unsettled transaction, adverse movements in the prices of the securities involved in these transactions before we unwind or reverse them can increase this risk. We may incur losses as a result of these transactions that could materially impact our financial results.

        In addition to trading errors, other employee errors or misconduct could subject us to financial losses or regulatory sanctions and seriously harm our reputation. It is not always possible to prevent employee errors or misconduct and the precautions we take to prevent and detect this activity may not be effective in all cases. Misconduct by our employees could include hiding unauthorized activities from us, improper or unauthorized activities on behalf of customers or improper use of confidential information. Misconduct by our employees could result in losses, litigation, regulatory sanctions or other material adverse effects on the Company.

Our business exposes us to litigation risks.

        Many aspects of our business involve substantial risks of liability and we are involved in a number of investigations and inquiries that could result in liability. These risks of liability arise from, and could result in claims regarding, among other things, potential delays or failures of trade executions, trade settlement terms, allegations of the inadequacy or inaccuracy of research products and the conduct of other aspects of our business. The defense of claims, even those without merit, involves significant legal

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expenses. An adverse resolution of any lawsuit or claim against us could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The market price of our common stock could be volatile.

        The market price of our common stock may be volatile and could be significantly affected by any number of factors like volatility in the broader stock market, changes in analyst earnings estimates, quarterly variations in our results of operations, shifting investor perceptions, a large purchase or sale by a significant stockholder, the announcement of new products or the occurrence of events described in the other risk factors in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

There can be no assurance that we will continue to declare cash dividends or repurchase our common stock.

        During 2015, we repurchased shares of our common stock under a Board-authorized repurchase program and the Board also authorized payment of quarterly cash dividends on our common stock. Any Board determinations to continue to repurchase our common stock or to continue to pay cash dividends on the common stock, in each case at levels consistent with recent practice or at all, will be based primarily upon our financial condition, results of operations, business and capital requirements, price of our common stock in the case of the repurchase programs, and the Board's continuing determination that the repurchase programs and the declaration of dividends are in the best interests of our stockholders and are in compliance with all laws and agreements applicable to the repurchase and dividend programs. In the event we do not declare a quarterly dividend, or discontinue our share repurchases, our stock price could be adversely affected.