Compliance Breakdown At JPMorgan

In a settlement with the SEC, the securities giant JPMorgan LLC admits to securities failures dating back to 2018 in which employees, including managers and senior personnel responsible for compliance, used personal devices to send texts, WhatsApp messages and emails about company business. Records of those communications were not preserved per federal securities law. JPMS admitted that the failures were widespread, and well-known within the firm. Managing directors in charge of implementing and ensuring compliance routinely used their personal devices to communicate about the firm’s securities business. During the time those practices were ubiquitous, JPMS received subpoenas for documents and voluntary requests from the SEC staff in many investigations, and failed to search for relevant records contained on the personal devices of employees. The SEC is investigating record preservation practices at several financial firms. Separately, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced a settlement with JPMS and affiliated entities for related conduct.