Underscore Importance of Digital Communication Management Charged by SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (JPMS), a broker/dealer subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co., with “widespread and chronic breaches by the business and its employees to keep and preserve written Communication” earlier this month. JPMS conceded the facts set forth in the SEC’s order and acknowledged that its behaviour violated federal securities laws, according to a statement from the SEC.

To settle the case, the business agreed to pay a $125 million fine and make significant changes to its compliance policies and procedures. Recordkeeping and books-and-records duties have been a key part of market integrity and a core component of the SEC’s capacity to be “an effective cop on the beat,” according to SEC Chair Gary Gensler. In order to escape market scrutiny, registrants must guarantee that their Communication are properly recorded and that they are not done outside of legitimate channels as technology advances.

Unfortunately, we’ve witnessed financial market infractions in the past that were done through unauthorised Communication channels, such as the 2013 foreign exchange scam. The SEC’s vital examinations and enforcement efforts are aided by books-and-records obligations. They help to establish trust in our system. According to the SEC’s order, JPMS personnel often communicated with securities business matters on their personal devices, utilising text messages, WhatsApp, and personal email accounts, from at least January 2018 through November 2020.

According to the SEC, the business did not keep any of these records as required by federal securities laws. Supervisors, including managing directors and other senior supervisors in charge of executing and ensuring compliance with JPMS’s stated rules and procedures, also used their personal devices to communicate about the firm’s securities business, according to JPMS.