Wall Street texting habit sticks banks with rare $1 billion bill
Morgan Stanley disclosed on Thursday that it expects to pay a $200 million fine, the same amount JPMorgan Chase & Co. paid as authorities use that settlement as a yardstick for the industry.
Regulators are poised to extract about $1 billion in fines from the five biggest US investment banks for failing to monitor employees using unauthorized messaging apps.
Morgan Stanley disclosed on Thursday that it expects to pay a $200 million fine, the same amount JPMorgan Chase & Co. paid as authorities use that settlement as a yardstick for the industry. Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
And Bank of America Corp. also have had advanced discussions with the regulators to each pay a similar figure, according to people with knowledge of the talks who asked not to be identified because the matter isn’t public.
The discussions have not yet concluded and the penalties could still change. The grand total represents a rare escalation from regulators looking into such an issue, with fines tending to be significantly lower in the past.
The sweeping civil probes rank among the largest-ever penalties levied against US banks for record-keeping lapses, dwarfing a $15 million penalty imposed on Morgan Stanley in 2006 over its failure to preserve emails.