by Kevin S. Dilallo and Joe Schmidt
This week, two high-profile investigations have highlighted the enormous financial and legal risks created by lax management of employees' text messages, apps, and personal mobile devices in the workplace
First was the announcement of a months-long probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of several Wall Street banks, which concluded that the banks had failed to comply with fundamental recordkeeping laws and regulations dating back to the 1930s and 40s. The widespread non-compliance, which occurred at all levels within the organizations, stemmed from employees' routine use of personal devices, email accounts, and text messaging apps for regulated financial transactions and related communications. The targeted institutions failed to maintain records of these communications and transactions as required by law. As a result, the two federal agencies slapped fines on them totaling One Billion Dollars to punish the recordkeeping violations.