Messages sent via WhatsApp are firmly established as a potential source of incrimination for bankers and traders thoughtlessly firing-off a few client comments and emojis to friends. – Just ask the Morgan Stanley traders fired last October, or ex-Jefferies banker Christopher Niehaus, who was fined £37k ($52k) for boasting about the potential for an M&A deal to pay off his mortgage. In the past, however, it’s been possible for some people to avoid death by WhatsApp message simply by deleting any inappropriate messages and claiming innocence. JPMorgan seemed to have these people in its sights with a memo sent last Friday. The memo, which was reportedly sent to JPMorgan’s ‘traders, bankers, financial advisers and even some branch employees’ requested that they spend some time (potentially rather a lot, presumably over the weekend) scrolling through every single message they’ve sent or received on WhatsApp and other messaging systems for the past three years, and saving any ‘related to work.’ The memo warned that failure to comply could lead to “consequences” from the bank’s legal team. The edict seemingly applied to messages sent on personal as well as work devices. The implication would seem to be that JPMorgan’s next move will be to ask its people to submit all the messages they isolated in order that they…
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