Vincent Guyaux

U.S. securities regulators have imposed close to $2 billion in fines on more than a dozen financial firms, including eight major Wall Street banks, for failing to police employees who routinely used messaging apps and other “off channel” services on their personal phones to communicate with one another. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the charges on Tuesday after a monthslong investigation found that Wall Street firms did not monitor how employees were communicating on work-related matters or keep records of those messages, as federal law requires.