Citigroup joined the list of banks being investigated over employee communications using unauthorized messaging services.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is probing Citigroup Global Markets “and other firms regarding compliance with record-keeping obligations for broker-dealers and investment advisers in connection with business-related communications sent over unapproved electronic messaging channels,” the New York-based bank said in a regulatory filing Monday. “CGMI is cooperating with the investigation.”
Firms including Goldman Sachs Group and HSBC Holdings are being probed by U.S. regulators over staffers’ communications. In December, the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission imposed $200 million in fines on JPMorgan Chase, saying that even managing directors and other senior supervisors at the bank had skirted regulatory scrutiny by using services such as WhatsApp or personal email addresses for work-related communication.
Wall Street firms have been required for decades to closely monitor and save staffers’ business communications, a task that’s been complicated in recent years by the proliferation of mobile technology and messaging apps. The system was strained further as banks sent workers home at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, making it harder to see who might be using an unmonitored device.
