SEC fines 16 Wall Street firms $1.1B over recordkeeping failures

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) -The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined 16 Wall Street companies for widespread and longstanding failures to maintain and preserve electronic communications.

The firms, including Barclays, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and Goldman Sachs, agreed to pay combined penalties of more than $1.1 billion as their conduct violated recordkeeping provisions of the federal securities laws, according to a statement on Tuesday from the SEC.

"Finance, ultimately, depends on trust. By failing to honor their recordkeeping and books-and-records obligations, the market participants we have charged today have failed to maintain that trust," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler.

He added: "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."

From January 2018 through Sept.2021, the firms' employees routinely communicated about business matters using text messaging applications on their personal devices, the statement also noted.