2023-08-08 16:42:00
Wells Fargo & Co. and BNP Paribas SA are among the ecompanies that will pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for the use by their employees from unofficial means of communication such as WhatsApp and personal emails to conduct business, the latest salvo in US regulators’ crackdown on Wall Street’s record-breaking.
Las Wells Fargo units agreed to pay $125 million to the Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC, for its acronym in English) of the United States and BNP will cancel US $ 35 million, the regulatory body said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the two banks will pay $75 million each for similar violations by their derivatives brokers, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said.
Goldman Sachs begins laying off 125 CEOs
Totalthe CFTC announced fines of US$260 million, and the SEC said the companies agreed to pay $289 million. The total fines imposed for the investigations into messaging practices exceed $2.5 billion, making it one of the biggest crackdowns on Wall Street in the past decade.
What started as an analysis of the use of chat applications by trading desks has turned into an analysis of the use by the financial sector of any type of communication tool that does not keep records properly. Hedge and venture capital funds are also being investigated for their use of personal communication apps.
Laurie Kight, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, said in a statement that the company was pleased to have resolved the matter. BNP declined to comment.
They foresee a massive decrease in liquidity in the markets
Financial companies are obliged to scrupulously monitor and keep communications related to their activity.d to prevent misconduct.
The reRegulators say the use of messaging tools that automatically delete communications significantly hampers the investigation of wrongdoing. The measures announced Tuesday follow a series of cases published last September. At the time, the SEC announced $1.1 billion in fines against companies including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., while the CFTC said the companies had agreed to pay $710 million in penalties.
Tuesday, lThe SEC said its investigation “uncovered widespread and longstanding off-channel communications.” in companies. As part of the settlements, the firms admitted that their employees had used platforms such as iMessage, WhatsApp and Signal to discuss business. The companies did not keep sufficient records, according to the SEC. The CFTC said it found similar violations.
Other big-name companies that agreed to settle on Tuesday included units of Bank of Montreal, Mizuho Financial Group and Société Générale SA.
A BMO spokesperson said the company has “implemented significant improvements to our compliance procedures in recent years” and is pleased to have resolved the investigation. Mizuho and SocGen declined to comment.
Translated by Paulina Munita.
1691513719
#Fines #banks #personal #messaging #exceed #US2.5 #billion