WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fined J.P. Morgan Securities $125million for its “widespread failures” to protect staff communications via personal messaging apps, mobile phones, and email. It also investigated similar lapses at financial institutions.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:)’s broker-dealer subsidiary admitted to the charges and to violating securities laws. The SEC stated that it also accepted to make substantial improvements in compliance policies and pay a fine.

According to the SEC, “The actions of the firm significantly affected the SEC’s capability to investigate possible violations of federal securities law,”

This penalty was one of the first enforcement actions taken under Gary Gensler (Democratic-appointed SEC Chair), who pledged to clamp down on Wall Street misconduct.

J.P. Morgan Securities was discovered by the SEC to be in violation of rules that requires firms to retain written business communications when the broker is unable to provide records as part of investigations.

It confirmed a Reuters October report that the SEC had opened records-keeping investigations in response to the JPMorgan probe.

A SEC official stated, “This issue is one that we are seeing at other businesses,” and added that entities as well as individuals who report will have a better chance of winning penalty negotiations.

The SEC stated that J.P.Morgan Securities employees communicated with each other about securities-related matters from at least January 2018 to November 2020. This was done via text messages, WhatsApp and their own email accounts.

These records weren’t kept. According to the SEC these were institutional-wide lapses and made known to top management. They also used personal computers to talk about business issues.

J.P. Morgan Securities was also informed that it had agreed to engage a compliance consultant, and to review its policies and procedures regarding the retention and use of personal electronic communications.