Banks Fined Nearly $2 Billion for Using WhatsApp as Instant Messaging App for Their Business Operations

A total of 11 banking institutions have been fined by regulators to the tune of nearly $2 billion dollars after they used instant messaging apps such as iMessage and WhatsApp for business communications. It’s alleged that the financial institutions allowed and, in some cases, even encouraged the use of consumer-grade messaging apps, resulting in scores of record keeping violations.

The banks that were fined a combined total of $1.8 billion by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for using unapproved messaging apps included some major industry players like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co, UBS Group, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Cantor and Nomura Holdings, Inc,

The nearly-$2 billion in fines issued to nearly a dozen banking institutions for “pervasive off-channel communications” using messaging apps like iMessage and WhatsApp has been described as a “landmark case” for the SEC and CFTC, with a broad investigation that began in 2021. Many were surprised by these messaging app fines since the SEC, in particular, has historically reserved these sky-high penalties for fraud cases.

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