JP Morgan Fined For Deleting 47 Million Emails

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 26: The JPMorgan Chase logo is seen at their headquarters building on May 26, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

JP Morgan Chase will pay a $4 million fine to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to settle allegations that the bank accidentally deleted about 47 million emails dated from January until April 2018.

A chunk of the deleted emails were sought by subpoenas in at least eight SEC investigations, and in four additional regulatory probes. Other deleted emails “could relate to potential future investigations, legal matters and regulatory inquiries.”
Many of the emails were business records “required to be retained pursuant” to federal securities law. They were deleted in June 2019. In accordance with SEC regulations, companies are obligated to retain all business records for a minimum of three years.
The deletions took place subsequent to JPMorgan’s corporate compliance technology department’s unsuccessful attempts to delete certain communications from the 1970s and 1980s. In an effort to address this issue, the department sought assistance from an external vendor responsible for managing the bank’s email storage.

The SEC issued an order to the firm, directing JP Morgan Chase to “cease and desist from committing any future violations” of the securities law that mandates broker-dealers to retain the original copies of all communications for a minimum of three years.
In a statement, the bank announced that it adopted its own email coding procedures to avoid a repeat of this issue.

Many of the emails were business records “required to be retained pursuant” to federal securities law. They were deleted in June 2019. In accordance with SEC regulations, companies are obligated to retain all business records for a minimum of three years.
“JPMorgan takes its record-keeping obligations seriously,” the bank said in a statement.