The markets regulator in the United States, the SEC, is investigating Santander Bank by the use of instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp by their investment bankers, since these communication channels are beyond the control of the financial institution.
The regulations require banks to preserve the electronic communications of their employees, both among themselves and in their relationships with clients, to prevent, for example, the use of privileged information, and to guarantee the proper functioning of the markets.
However, the use of platforms such as WhatsApp has led the SEC to recently investigate several entities in the United States and this year 26 financial companies agreed to pay close to US$400 million in fines for this matter.
The procedure involves Santander US Capital Markets (SanCap), the US subsidiary of the entity that was established in 2023 after the merger of the investment banking that it channeled through Santander Investment Securities (SIS) and Amherst Pierpont, the income broker fixed that he bought in 2022.
“SanCap is cooperating with the SEC in relation to an investigation focused on compliance with commercial communications on messaging platforms that were not approved by SanCap,” the firm explained in the presentation of its quarterly accounts. “The investigation arises after a series of regulatory agreements with other companies that cover similar issues,” he explained.
In this context, it is worth remembering that Santander informed all its staff in Spain last June of the obligation to remove this application from their company mobile phones.
The truth is that Santander is not the only entity that is being audited for this issue. In 2021, the SEC fined a subsidiary of the investment bank JPMorgan Chase about US$125 million for not keeping records of its communications for almost two years. between January 2018 and November 2020.
Specifically, several of its employees communicated “often” about matters related to the stock market business through their personal mobile devices, through text messages, personal email accounts or through WhatsApp.
On the other hand, in 2022 the markets regulator in the United States announced fines to banks such as Barclays, Bank of America, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Jefferies or Nomura for the same fact, while in 2023 it sanctioned entities such as Wells Fargo or BNP Paribas.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
