Wall Street WhatsApp, Texting Fines Exceed $2.5 Billion
- BNP, Wells Fargo among firms to pay fines to SEC and CFTC
- Regulators say probes discovered recordkeeping lapses
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Wells Fargo & Co. and BNP Paribas SA are among firms that will pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties for employees using unofficial communications like WhatsApp, personal texts or email to conduct business — the latest in US regulators’ crackdown on Wall Street’s failure to keep records.
Three Wells Fargo units agreed to pay a total of $125 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and BNP will pay $35 million, the regulator said Tuesday. The two lenders will pay $75 million each over similar violations by their derivatives brokers, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said.