“An analysis of 13 Wells Fargo employees, for instance, found that all had violated the bank’s communications policies by using text messages to communicate with co-workers and market participants.”
The SEC fined 11 firms $289 million and the CFTC fined four banks $260 million. Wells Fargo paid the most at $200 million. Fines on the issue now top $2 billion since late 2021, and the supervisors meant to enforce the rules were texting on personal phones too. Bankers moved to side channels after the last decade’s scandals hinged on preserved chatroom messages. The fine is the price of keeping evidence off the record.