Bankers Shouldn’t Be Sliding Into Each Other’s DMs
Wall Street faces more than $2 billion in fines for failing to monitor messages on services such as WhatsApp. Sometimes the industry is its own worst enemy.
Traders shouldn’t be sliding into each other’s DMs.
Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
When Gary Gensler, chair of the US Securities and Exchanges Commission, handed out huge fines to Wall Street dealers for failing to record WhatsApp and other messages on Tuesday, he admonished them solemnly: “Finance, ultimately, depends on trust,” he said.
Except, well, it really doesn’t — and hasn’t for a long time. This is why every aspect of what brokers and traders do each day across the financial world is regulated within an inch of its life. It’s also why all communication about business between traders, bankers, investors and executives has to be recorded and kept for years.