Wells Fargo, Bank of Montreal among latest fined for WhatsApp misuse | American Banker

In the latest round of fines over recordkeeping violations, the SEC and CFTC charged 11 Wall Street firms $549 million in penalties. The agencies vowed to continue enforcing compliance throughout the industry.Della Rollins/Bloomberg, Michael Nagle/Bloomberg Two Wall Street regulators recently fined eight investment banks and three other financial firms a total of $549 million over “widespread and long standing failures” to archive electronic communications sent via services including WhatsApp, Signal, and iMessage. The regulators also said they will continue to pursue such cases.The fines are the latest in a series that the Securities and Exchange Commission, alongside the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, have issued to broker-dealers over the past two years, starting with JPMorgan Securities in December 2021. The fines issued last week hit brands including Wells Fargo, Bank of Montreal, BNP Paribas, and Wedbush.The CFTC and SEC have now collectively imposed $2.5 billion in fines over these recordkeeping violations, which Ian McGinley, director of enforcement for the CFTC, said are designed to send a clear message.”Recordkeeping and supervision requirements are fundamental, and registrants that fail to comply with these core regulatory obligations do so at their own peril,” McGinley said.Some broker-dealers and investment advisors have self-reported violations to the
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