Wall Street Hit With $2 Billion of Fines in WhatsApp Probe
- BofA, Citi, Goldman Sachs among banks slapped with penalties
- Pandemic added to proliferation of mobile-messaging apps
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US regulators reached settlements with a dozen banks in a sprawling probe into how global financial firms failed to monitor employees’ communications on unauthorized messaging apps, bringing total penalties in the matter to more than $2 billion.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced $1.1 billion in fines and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission disclosed $710 million in penalties in separate statements Tuesday. Those levies -- against firms including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. -- combined with JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s $200 million in fines from December, bring the total to $2.01 billion, making them the biggest penalties ever against US banks for record-keeping lapses.