Wells Fargo, BNP to pay millions in U.S. fines in WhatsApp probes

Brent Lewin/Bloomberg

Wells Fargo and BNP Paribas will pay millions of dollars in penalties for employees using unofficial communications like WhatsApp to conduct business as the Securities and Exchange Commission deepens its crackdown on how Wall Street keeps records.

Wells Fargo units agreed to pay $125 million to settle the cases and BNP will pay $35 million, the SEC said on Tuesday. In all 11 firms agreed to pay penalties, including a Bank of Montreal unit and a Mizuho Financial Group securities arm, to Wall Street’s main regulator. 

In a separate actions, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced settlements in similar cases with units of four lenders including Wells Fargo and Bank of Montreal worth an additional $260 million. 

Over the past several years the SEC and CFTC have been cracking down on firms skirting regulatory scrutiny by using services such as WhatsApp or personal email addresses for work-related communication, regulators said at the time.

Last September, the SEC announced $1.1 billion in fines against firms including Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs Group.