Morgan Stanley reaches agreements to resolve SEC, CFTC investigations

(Reuters) – Morgan Stanley said on Friday it had reached agreements with two regulatory agencies to resolve record-keeping investigations about business communications on messaging platforms not approved by the bank.

The bank said it reached agreements in principle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for $125 million and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for $75 million, according to a filing. (https://bit.ly/3dbBlYD)

Morgan Stanley had said in May it may face civil liabilities from claims filed by block trade transaction participants, nearly three months after it first disclosed U.S. regulators and prosecutors were probing various aspects of its block trading business.

Reuters reported last October the SEC was looking in to how Wall Street banks kept track of employees’ work-related digital communications, such as text messages and emails.

(Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)