Eleven large financial institutions will pay more than a collective $1.8 billion in penalties to settle regulatory investigations related to employees’ use of messaging applications that violated record-keeping rules, The Wall Street Journal reports. The firms include the brokerage divisions of Bank of America, Barclays and Citigroup. The fines are imposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which asserted it discovered “pervasive off-channel communications” by bank employees over Apple iMessage and WhatsApp. SEC investigators also reportedly found supervisors instructing subordinates to use unauthorized messaging platforms instead of company email.
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