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

The companies acknowledged the facts set forth by the SEC in their respective orders, acknowledged that their actions violated the record-keeping provisions of the federal securities laws, agreed to pay civil penalties totaling more than $81 million, and have begun implementing compliance policies and procedural improvements to address those violations.。

• Northern Mutual Investment Services LLC (NMIS) and Northern Mutual Investment Management Co.LLC (NMIM) and Mason Street Advisors LLC (Mason Street) agreed to pay a penalty of $16.5 million;

• Guggenheim Securities LLC (Guggenheim Securities) and Guggenheim Partners Investment Management LLC (GPIM) agreed to pay a $15 million fine;

• Oppenheimer & Co.Inc.agreed to pay a $12 million fine;

• Cambridge Investment Research Inc.(CIR) and Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc.(CIRA) agreed to pay a $10 million penalty;

• Key Investment Services LLC (KIS) and KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc.(KBCM) agreed to pay a $10 million penalty;

• Lincoln Financial Advisors Corporation and Lincoln Financial Securities Corporation agreed to pay a $8.5 million penalty.

• U.S.Bancorp Investments Inc.(U.S.Bancorp) agreed to pay an $8 million penalty;

• Huntington Investments (HIC), together with Huntington Securities (HSI) and Capstone Capital Markets, LLC (Capstone), agreed to pay a $1.25 million fine after self-reporting。

The SEC's investigation found that all 16 companies have long commonly used unapproved means of communication, so-called non-channel communications.。As stated in the SEC's order, the broker-dealer company acknowledges that starting at least 2019 or 2020, its employees communicate via personal text messages about their employer's business.。The Investment Advisory Company acknowledges that its employees have sent and received non-channel communications related to the advice made or proposed to be made and the 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 maintain the necessary records, some companies are likely to make these non-channel communication messages unavailable to the SEC during various SEC investigations.。These derelictions involved employees at multiple levels, including supervisors and senior managers。

Guggenheim Securities, CIR, Huntington, Key, Lincoln, NMIS, Oppenheimer, and U.S.Bancorp is separately charged with violating certain record-keeping provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and failing to exercise reasonable supervision to prevent and detect those violations.。CIRA, GPIM, HIC, KIS, Lincoln, NMIM and Mason Street are each accused of violating certain record-keeping provisions of the Investment Advisers Act 1940 and of failing to exercise reasonable supervision to prevent and detect such 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 independent compliance consultants 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 frameworks for dealing with employees' non-compliance with those policies and procedures.。