Asset managers on the alert after ‘WhatsApp’ crackdown on banks

Asset managers are tightening controls on personal communication tools such as WhatsApp as they join banks in trying to ensure employees play by the rules when they do business with clients remotely.

Regulators had already begun to clamp down on the use of unauthorised messaging tools to discuss potentially market-moving matters, but the issue gathered urgency when the pandemic forced more finance staff to work from home in 2020.

Most of the companies caught in communications and record-keeping probes by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have been banks — which have collectively been fined or have set aside more than $1 billion to cover regulatory penalties.