The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that 11 financial firms, including broker-dealers and investment advisers, have agreed to pay more than $88 million in penalties to settle charges of failure to comply with federal record-keeping laws.
The SEC said in a Sept. 24 announcement that the violations were related to the improper use of unapproved electronic communication methods—known as “off-channel communications”—that the firms failed to preserve, potentially impeding the agency’s ability to conduct investigations.
