After imposing fines on large banks UBS and Credit Suisse for using unsecured communication channels, the US Securities and Exchange Commission is now aiming for another industry.
Now, US fund behemoths Blackstone and Blackrock are in the sights of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which announced months ago it wanted to investigate other financial firms after taking on the banks.
The company said Blackstone was contacted by the SEC back in October to release information about its retention of electronic business communications and text messages. Blackrock reported that it would respond to a Securities and Exchange Commission request concerning an industry-wide investigation. Both companies said they would cooperate with regulators.
Earlier, financial investors Apollo Global Management, Carlyle Group, and KKR reported a request from the agency to do so.
Last year, after months of investigation, the SEC fined a total of 16 financial firms, including Wall Street titans Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan. Credit Suisse and UBS also had to pay $200 million each.
The fines resulted in the banks imposing stricter controls on private phone use.
JP Morgan recently took a new approach to ensure compliance rules were followed in employee communications, phasing out the company smartphone in the process.
According to a media report, it is relying on a company smartphone app to ensure communications are compliant. Bankers and traders have been asked to hand over their company cell phones and install a monitoring app on their private devices instead that allows monitoring of work-related messages.
Swiss banks have precise regulations on which channels and in what form professional communication is allowed and what the documentation requirements are. At UBS, there are clear guidelines of which employees are regularly reminded