- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Aaron Nicodemus2022-08-08T17:35:00
Morgan Stanley has reached agreements in principle totaling $200 million with two U.S. regulators to settle charges its employees used messaging platforms not approved by the financial services company.
In a regulatory filing Friday, Morgan Stanley said it reached a $125 million agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and will pay an additional $75 million to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) “to resolve record-keeping related investigations by those agencies relating to business communications on messaging platforms that had not been approved by the firm.”
The impending enforcement action follows a similar case announced in December, in which JPMorgan Chase was fined a total of $200 million by the SEC and CFTC for failure to maintain records of communications on securities, commodities, and swaps business matters made on bank employees’ personal devices. The regulators concluded the practice occurred over several years and was widespread among all levels of employees, including at the senior level.
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Morgan Stanley Smith Barney agreed to pay $35 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges it repeatedly disregarded the safeguarding of clients’ personal data in decommissioning local storage devices.
Monique Thacker, a current HSBC Bank USA executive, claimed in a federal lawsuit she was discriminated and retaliated against for raising regulatory violations involving unauthorized communications by bank employees that were downplayed or ignored by management.
U.S. regulators have signaled through an impending widespread enforcement sweep they are zeroing in on banker use of messaging apps to discuss business matters. The cases emphasize the need for financial services firms to enhance their monitoring and recordkeeping.
Three former executives of Chicago-based Outcome Health, a healthcare technology company, were sentenced for misleading an auditor, clients, lenders, and investors about a scheme to sell $45 million in overbilled advertisements.
A home health company operating in Indiana, Ohio, and Texas agreed to pay nearly $4.5 million to settle allegations it filed false claims by giving sports tickets and other kickbacks to assisted living facilities in exchange for referrals.
Crypto-friendly Silvergate Bank will pay a total of $63 million penalties to California and the Federal Reserve Board to settle charges that its anti-money laundering program failed to properly monitor more than $1 trillion worth of customer transactions.
