Wall Street Hit With $2 Billion of Fines in WhatsApp Probe

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. From a report: 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, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs Group -- combined with JPMorgan Chase'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.

'Finance, ultimately, depends on trust. By failing to honor their record-keeping and books-and-records obligations, the market participants we have charged today have failed to maintain that trust,' SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in the agency's statement. 'As technology changes, it's even more important that registrants appropriately conduct their communications about business matters within only official channels, and they must maintain and preserve those communications.'

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