Bank giants have to pay |
Billions in fines because employees chatted on WhatsApp
Unregulated communication via messenger services such as WhatsApp is costly to a number of large banks and financial firms in the US.
The total of 16 companies will pay a good 1.1 billion dollars (almost 1.15 billion euros) in fines, as the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Tuesday. Among others, Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank Securities are paying $125 million each.
Employees of the financial institutions exchanged information on business matters via messenger apps.
The US authorities saw this as a serious breach of the rules, since the companies could not archive the communication in the encrypted services as required.
SEC boss Gary Gensler (64) criticized that the financial companies had damaged the confidence of the market. At the end of last year, fines totaling 200 million dollars were imposed on the major bank JPMorgan following the investigation. (rgz, dpa)