Record fines on Wall Street for the use of WhatsApp were brewing for years

Big banks worry about how they can comply with records rules

WhatsApp. (Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloo/Andrew Harrer)

JP Morgan Chase's policies prohibited the use of WhatsApp for business. However, the Securities and Exchange Commission (THE SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC), or regulators, identified more than 100 people who did at JP Morgan Securities and tens of thousands of messages that the company launched despite the restrictions, according to the SEC settlement order.

According to SEC and CFTC rules, brokerage firms must preserve and monitor written communications by their employees, to create a paper trail for regulators verifying compliance with investor protection laws. Of course applying blockchain would be unnecessary paper, but government authorities are never imaginative in a creative way or dynamic in the deployment of technology.

Services like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal prioritize privacy and can be set to automatically delete messages after several days or after a chat has been read, at both ends of the line.

The average fine ordered in fiscal year 2020, the last full year of the Trump Administration, was $194,000. Fines in excess of $100 million are atypical.