Banks Hit with $549 Million in Fines For Use of Signal, WhatsApp, iMessage
"U.S. regulators on Tuesday announced a combined $549 million in penalties against Wells Fargo and a raft of smaller or non-U.S. firms that failed to maintain electronic records of employee communications," CNBC reported.
- "The Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed charges and $289 million in fines against 11 firms for “widespread and longstanding failures” in record-keeping, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission also said it fined four banks a total of $260 million for failing to maintain records required by the agency."
“Today’s actions stem from our continuing sweep to ensure that regulated entities, including broker-dealers and investment advisers, comply with their recordkeeping requirements, which are essential for us to monitor and enforce compliance with the federal securities laws,” Sanjay Wadhwa, deputy director of enforcement at the SEC, said in the release.
- "Wells Fargo, the fourth-biggest U.S. bank by assets and a relatively small player on Wall Street, racked up the most fines on Tuesday, with $200 million in penalties."
“Employees’ use of unapproved communication methods was not hidden within the firm. To the contrary, certain supervisors - the very people responsible for supervising employees to prevent this misconduct - routinely communicated using unapproved methods on their personal devices,” said the CFTC complaint.
- “We are pleased to resolve this matter,” said Wells Fargo spokeswoman Laurie Kight.
