On September 29, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed and settled charges against Interactive Brokers for failing to maintain and store records as required by the CFTC.
The CFTC's order requires Interactive Brokers to pay a $20 million administrative penalty, cease and desist from further violations of recordkeeping and surveillance requirements, and take certain remedial actions.
Interactive Brokers admits to the violations outlined in the order, according to the regulator's website.
The CFTC says that from at least 2019 to the present, Interactive Brokers failed to prevent its employees, including management, from communicating using unauthorized communication methods, including private text messages and messages sent via WhatsApp. The firm was required to retain some of these written communications because they related to CFTC-registered trades.
In addition, the regulator found that the widespread use of unauthorized communication methods violated Interactive Brokers' internal policies and protocols, which prohibit business communications conducted through unauthorized methods.
It is worth noting that since December 2021, the CFTC has levied $1.117 billion in civil monetary penalties against 20 financial institutions for using unauthorized communication methods in violation of its requirements.
Read also: Gemini responds to the NY Post article.
