Tech

Morgan Stanley fined £5.4m for energy trading via WhatsApp

Fine follows moves US clamp down on the use of WhatsApp on Wall Street trading floors

Fine is the first issued by UK energy regulator under legal requirements to record and retain communications relating to wholesale energy trading. Picture: Mike Kemp

A Morgan Stanley unit was fined £5.4 million (€6.34 million) for failure to retain messages sent by traders over WhatsApp in the first-ever penalty of its type issued under the UK energy regulator’s powers.

Morgan Stanley & Co. International failed to record and retain electronic communications between January 2018 and March 2020 made by energy traders on privately-owned phones which discussed transactions, Ofgem said in a statement on Wednesday.

Morgan Stanley has taken steps to ...