The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today announced charges against five broker-dealers, three dual-registered broker-dealers and investment advisors, and two affiliated investment advisors for their long-standing and widespread failure to maintain and preserve electronic communications.。

The companies admitted the facts as stated by the SEC in their respective orders and admitted their actions violated the record-keeping provisions of the federal securities laws.。The two companies agreed to pay a total of $79 million in fines (described below) and have begun to implement compliance policies and procedures to deal with these violations.。

○ Interactive Brokers Corp.and affiliate Interactive Brokers LLC (collectively, Interactive Brokers) agreed to pay a $35 million penalty; ○ Robert W.Baird & Co.Inc.agreed to pay a $15 million penalty; ○ William Blair & Company LLC and affiliate William Blair Investment Management LLC (WBIM) agreed to pay a $10 million penalty; ○ Nuveen Securities LLC agreed to pay a $8.5 million penalty;○ Agree to pay $8 million in fines; ○ Perella Weinberg Partners LP (Perella Weinberg) and Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.Securities LLC (TPH), along with Perella Weinberg Partners Capital Management LP (Perella Weinberg Capital), agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine.。

The SEC investigation found widespread and long-standing non-channel communication at all 10 companies.。As stated in the SEC order, broker-dealer firms acknowledge that, at least from 2019, their employees have communicated through personal text messages about their employer's business, while investment advisory firms acknowledge that their employees have sent and received non-channel communications related to advice made or proposed to be made and advice provided or proposed to be provided。These companies do not retain or preserve the vast majority of these non-channel communications, in violation of federal securities laws.。

By failing to keep and retain the necessary records, it is likely that certain companies will prevent the SEC from obtaining such non-channel communication information during various SEC investigations.。These lapses involved employees at multiple levels, including supervisors and senior managers。

Interactive Brokers, Baird, William Blair, Nuveen, Fifth Third, Perella Weinberg and TPH are each charged with violating certain record-keeping provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and failing to exercise reasonable supervision to prevent and detect such violations.。

Baird, William Blair, WBIM, Fifth Third and Perella Weinberg Capital are each charged with violating certain record-keeping provisions of the Investment Advisers Act 1940 and failing to exercise reasonable supervision to prevent and detect these violations.。

In addition to the large fines, each company was ordered to cease future violations of relevant record-keeping regulations and was reprimanded。The two companies also agreed to engage an independent compliance consultant to, among other things, conduct a comprehensive review of their policies and procedures relating to the retention of electronic communications on personal devices, as well as their respective procedures for dealing with employees' non-compliance with those policies.。