Morgan Stanley banking officials hope incoming CEO Ted Pick will put an end to questioning and fines over the investment bank’s use of off-channel communications, says New York Post reported.
As part of an ongoing crackdown on the use of WhatsApp and other unauthorized messaging apps to conduct official bank business, the Securities and Exchange Commission fined Morgan Stanley $125 million in September 2022. Did. Morgan Stanley also agreed to pay her $75 million to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Solve that parallel probe.
The Financial Times first reported in January that Morgan Stanley questioned and fined employees instead of using investor funds to pay the fines.
Some bankers believe the practice will end when Pick, the current co-president with a loyal following, takes over from current CEO James Gorman on January 1. I’m looking forward to it.
“Culture and loyalty are important to him,” a source told the Post of Picks. The bank has not announced any formal changes to its policy.
Morgan Stanley declined to comment for this story.
A Morgan Stanley official told the Post that there had been a “witch hunt” atmosphere within the investment bank since early 2022, when regulators first announced the investigation. Lawyers are questioning hundreds of bank employees about their use of personal devices and off-channel messaging apps to send messages to other bank employees, sources told the agency. .
Multiple media outlets reported that fines imposed on employees ranged from a few thousand dollars to as much as $1 million. Sources told Reuters in January that other banks under scrutiny from regulators are forcing employees to lose their future salaries and pay if they are found to have violated digital communications rules. The company reportedly told them that the fine would be deducted from the bonus.
But sources told the Post that Goldman Sachs, which the SEC fined $125 million in, and JPMorgan Chase, which had to pay a $200 million fine, are He said that he was not very keen on using members’ money to pay fines.
The SEC imposed more than $1.5 billion in fines as part of the sweep.