Whatsapp: Banks cut bonuses because of unauthorized Whatsapp use – Economy

A penalty for using the Whatsapp messaging service? This is perhaps what some parents think of when looking at their children’s communication routines. But it has been financial industry regulators who have slapped hefty fines on scores of major banks for senior executives using private Whatsapp or Signal channels to conduct business, despite the fact that doing so is illegal. This is primarily prohibited because the communication is harder to store there.

Deutsche Bank was also involved. She had to pay a total of more than $200 million in fines to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for executive employees and even the boardroom itself using the messaging services to send business messages. The SEC investigation also targeted numerous US banks such as Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and the Swiss Credit Suisse. Overall, the financial institutions paid $2 billion in fines to shelve the case.

In view of this sum, it seems only too understandable that the negligent people are now being asked to pay for themselves – so that the shareholders do not have to bear the damage alone. The British bank Barclays has therefore already blocked £500m from the staff bonus pool for 2022.

Does the board get off lightly?

The Deutsche Bank will therefore also significantly reduce the bonus for eligible employees, the reported Bloomberg news agency this week. In some cases, employees would even face a freeze on promotions and other disciplinary action. In evident anticipatory obedience, the board members of Deutsche Bank had already agreed at the beginning of last year to each give up EUR 75,000 of their bonus. As a sign, it was said, that they were taking responsibility for what was happening. However, the bank did not want to comment on the question of whether the board members now also have to worry about another part of their bonus, or whether the supervisory board could even demand compensation from the Deutsche Bank board of directors for possible breaches of duty. The use of private chat services for business purposes was widespread in the group up to the top management level.

The offenses are inexplicable, because since the financial crisis of 2008 at the latest, communication channels beyond the “official platform” have been forbidden. In order to prevent dirty business, the compliance department – which ensures that rules are observed – regularly reminds people not to use private mobile phones or news services for business purposes. Anyone who does do so must at least immediately ensure that the exchange is saved. During the pandemic, when many bankers were working from home, Schlendrian seems to have moved in.

The authorities were primarily concerned with securities traders who used Whatsapp or Signal to exchange information with customers about investment topics or other business matters. The problem: These services can be set up so that messages are automatically deleted after a certain period of time. And who can later track whether banks collude without permission? The scandals surrounding the manipulation of interest rates such as the Libor, for example, could only be partially cleared up because the supervisors were given access to the traders’ messenger services.

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