Home Business Insider Wall Street Firms Fined $1.8bn

Wall Street Firms Fined $1.8bn

Wall Street Firms Fined $1.8bn
Photo Collected From: Reuters

Some of Wall Street’s biggest firms have been fined $1.8 billion by US financial watchdogs. This is because employees at those firms negotiated deals and business through personal devices and apps, much of which was not saved. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says they have found evidence of all these incidents through investigation. Among them, 16 companies like Barclays, UBS, and Goldman Sachs have come up. So, the article is about Wall Street Firms Fined $1.8bn.

Described as groundbreaking, the investigation was conducted by the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In separate statements on September 27, 2022, the SEC announced penalties totaling $1.1 billion and the CFTC $71 million. SEC Chief Gary Gensler said the economy ultimately depends on trust. Organizations fail to respect data retention obligations. They are accused of failing to keep their faith.

The two regulatory agencies say that bank employees routinely used personal devices between January 2018 and September 2021 for business communications with colleagues, clients, and third-party advisers. They discussed this through text messages and WhatsApp.

The firms did not store most of these communications, violating federal policies governing commercial communications of broker-dealers and other financial institutions. It is also said to have hampered the ability of regulators to gather evidence. The investigation rocked Wall Street, costing some bankers their jobs. This has forced companies to introduce strict measures to stop the app’s unauthorized use.

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