SEC settles with more firms over use of texts and WhatsApp – Yahoo Finance

(Updates with background, details throughout)By Chris Prentice and Carolina MandlNEW YORK, Sept 29 (Reuters) -U.S. regulators on Friday fined eight companies a combined $111 million over record-keeping lapses, the latest in a series of enforcement actions levied over Wall Street’s use of WhatsApp and other unapproved messaging channels for discussing business.The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said eight broker-dealers, investment advisers and ratings agencies, including Perella Weinberg, Interactive Brokers, Fifth Third Securities and Nuveen Securities, had agreed to pay a combined $91 million in penalties to the agency.Interactive Brokers also agreed to pay the Commodity Futures Trading Commission $20 million to settle related charges.Lawyers for the companies either did not immediately respond to requests for comment or declined to comment.Reuters first reported earlier this week that the SEC was nearing a settlement with several Wall Street firms over record-keeping failures. The settlements mark the latest enforcement actions in the SEC’s two-year crackdown on Wall Street’s use of unapproved messaging apps, which has so far resulted in more than $2 billion in fines.Because companies do not surveil personal messaging channels, using them to discuss business puts SEC-regulated employers in breach of requirements to record all business communications. The SEC has said
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