WhatsApp at center of $289M fines imposed on Wells Fargo, others | CFO Dive

An article from Dive Brief The penalties bring to $1.5 billion the amount companies have paid since the SEC launched an initiative in 2021 to curb employees’ use of off-channel messages. Published Aug. 9, 2023 A person’s finger is posed next to the Whatsapp app logo on an iPhone. Carl Court via Getty Images First published on Dive Brief: The Securities and Exchange Commission has fined 11 financial services companies $289 million for not policing their employees’ use of WhatsApp and other messaging apps in violation of recordkeeping requirements.  “Here are three takeaways for those firms who haven’t yet [started policing employees’ instant messaging use],” SEC enforcement chief Gurbir Grewal said in a statement. “Self-report, cooperate and remediate. If you adopt that playbook, you’ll have a better outcome than if you wait for us to come calling.” The penalties bring to more than $1.5 billion the amount companies have paid since the SEC launched a risk-based initiative in 2021 to find, and curb, employees’ use of unreported instant messages for work in the highly regulated securities space.  Dive Insight: To date, the SEC has brought 30 enforcement actions against companies under the initiative. The goal, Grewal said, is to “drive this foundational
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