J.P. Morgan Faces Regulatory Scrutiny Over Message Preservation
From the Desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law:
While J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. ordered employees to preserve work-related messages on their personal phones earlier this year, regulators have begun to question the firm on how it preserves records. The largest U.S. bank has been responding to regulators’ requests for information “concerning its compliance with records preservation requirements in connection with business communications sent over electronic messaging channels that have not been approved by the firm”, according to J.P. Morgan’s regulatory filing. The filing also indicates that the firm is engaged in “certain resolution discussions”, however, there is no guarantee that the discussions will lead to a resolution.
As advisory firms began to send employees home to work remotely during the pandemic, many in the industry began to question how these firms would continue to meet regulatory requirements for closely monitoring employee communications. According to Bloomberg, J.P. Morgan earlier this year commanded bankers, advisors and some branch employees to filter through years of communications on personal devices and set aside all work-related messages. In fact, one notice ordered employees to sift through standard messages as well as platforms including WeChat and WhatsApp for messages dating as for back as 2018, according to Bloomberg.
Eccleston Law LLC represents investors and financial advisors nationwide in securities, employment, regulatory and disciplinary matters.
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