HSBC, Scotiabank latest caught in regs’ off-channel comms sting
By 
Aaron Nicodemus2023-05-11T19:28:00
The Bank of Nova Scotia and HSBC were fined $22.5 million and $15 million, respectively, by U.S. regulators on Thursday for admitted recordkeeping failures regarding employee use of off-channel communications to conduct company business.
The Bank of Nova Scotia (also known as Scotiabank) and its affiliate, Scotia Capital USA, were fined a collective $15 million by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and an additional $7.5 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for longstanding failures to properly maintain, preserve, or produce records and for failing to provide proper oversight of employees use of off-channel communications on personal cell phones and messaging platforms, including WhatsApp.
HSBC Securities was fined $15 million by the SEC for similar compliance failures.
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