HSBC, Scotiabank hit with SEC penalties

(Reuters) — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday slapped units of Bank of Nova Scotia and HSBC Holdings with civil penalties for widespread recordkeeping violations through employees’ use of personal devices and apps for work communications.

HSBC Securities Inc. and Scotia Capital, registered brokers with the SEC, have agreed to pay $15 million and $7.5 million, respectively, to settle the charges, the regulator said in a statement.

Scotiabank and Scotia Capital, registered dealers with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, also agreed to pay $15 million to the CFTC for related charges, according to a separate statement.

HSBC and Scotiabank are the latest Wall Street companies to face penalties for employees' use of personal devices and messaging apps since regulators launched a broad probe into the use of such platforms in 2021. Both companies admitted to the violations.

More than a dozen banks agreed to pay a total of $1.8 billion for such violations in September.