The CFTC found “widespread and longstanding” use of unapproved communication methods including text, WhatsApp and Signal, for business-related matters both internally and externally and at all levels of seniority. Senior personnel violated the policies they had designed and were also meant to enforce internally.

The firms and affiliates are:

• Bank of America, N.A.; BofA Securities, Inc.; and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated
• Barclays Bank, PLC and Barclays Capital Inc.
• Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
• Citibank, N.A.; Citigroup Energy Inc.; and Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
• Credit Suisse International and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC
• Deutsche Bank AG and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
• Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC f/k/a Goldman Sachs & Co.
• Jefferies Financial Services, Inc. and Jefferies LLC
• Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC; Morgan Stanley Capital Services LLC; Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc.; and Morgan Stanley Bank, N.A.
• Nomura Global Financial Products Inc.; Nomura Securities International, Inc.; and Nomura International PLC
• UBS AG; UBS Financial Services, Inc.; and UBS Securities LLC

The CFTC indicated that these recordkeeping failures led to the loss of “hundreds if not thousands of business-related communications” including those connected with commodities and swaps business that the firms were required to supervise as CFTC registrants.

The CFTC, like the SEC in a parallel enforcement action, pointed out that recordkeeping requirements are critical to maintaining market integrity because they allow for the effective and efficient conduct of examinations and investigations.

In addition to the charges and fines the firms have been ordered to cease and desist from further violations and to engage in “specified remedial undertakings.”

In voting to approve the enforcement actions against the firms CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero said that “it was well known within these banks” that flagrant policy violations were taking place, but that no one stopped these. She said that the CFTC found that the “tone at the top” to be one of “evasion and obfuscation” and declared that “the era of evasive communications is over.”