The receipts, also known as ADRs, are U.S. securities that represent shares of a foreign company that require a corresponding number of foreign shares to be held in custody at a depository bank.
The SEC said JPMorgan improperly provided ADRs to brokers in thousands of pre-release transactions when neither the broker nor customers had the foreign shares needed to support the new ADRs.
The agency said the practice essentially inflated the total number of a foreign issuer's tradeable securities, resulting in abusive practices like inappropriate short selling and dividend arbitrage.
Citigroup Inc. agreed to pay $38.7 million to settle similar SEC charges in November while Deutsche Bank AG agreed to pay about $75 million in July. BNY Mellon was also ordered to pay more than $54 million for its dealings with ADRs.
"With these charges against JPMorgan, the SEC has now held all four depositary banks accountable for their fraudulent issuances of ADRs into an unsuspecting market," Sanjay Wadhwa, senior associate director of the SEC's New York Regional Office, said in a statement.
"Our investigation continues into brokerage firms that profited by making use of these improperly issued ADRs."
JPMorgan spokesman Andrew Gray downplayed the SEC action.
"We're pleased to have resolved this matter, which is related to an industry practice we voluntarily ended a few years ago," Gray said.
Depository receipts are big business. More than 74 billion were traded in the first half of 2018 for $2 trillion.