US regulators on Tuesday announced combined fines of US$ 549 million (about 501 million euros) against the American bank Wells Fargo and a number of companies that failed to keep electronic records of employee communications when using messaging apps like WhatsApp.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced $289 million in fines against eleven companies for “widespread failures” in record keeping.
While the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also said it fined four banks a total of $260 million for failing to keep records required by the agency.
The sanctioned firms admitted that since at least 2019, employees used secondary channels such as WhatsApp to discuss company business and failed to preserve records. “in violation of federal laws.”
Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest US bank by assets, racked up the most fines today, totaling $200 million in penalties.
This is the latest effort by Washington DC-based regulators to crack down on the widespread use of messaging apps like Signal, WhatsApp or Apple iMessage among employees, as related fines in recent years have totaled more than US $2 billion, according to the SEC and CFTC.
In January, investment bank Morgan Stanley fined several of its employees or executives up to $1 million for doing business using these messaging apps.
This measure was put into practice, after in September 2022, Morgan Stanley and other large banks agreed with US regulators to pay large penalties for the misuse that their employees were making of WhatsApp and other similar tools.
Source: EFE
Source: Gestion
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