ST. LOUIS — St. Louis-based Wells Fargo Advisors and two related firms have agreed to pay a $125 million penalty for failing to maintain and preserve electronic communications, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday.
The penalty is part of $289 million that 11 firms will pay after admitting that their conduct violated record-keeping provisions of the federal securities laws. The firms have begun implementing improvements to their compliance policies and procedures to address these violations, the SEC said.
“Today’s actions stem from our continuing sweep to ensure that regulated entities, including broker-dealers and investment advisers, comply with their record-keeping requirements, which are essential for us to monitor and enforce compliance with the federal securities laws,” Sanjay Wadhwa, the SEC’s deputy director of enforcement, said in a statement.
The firms that reached settlements with the SEC include two entities based in St. Louis — Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network LLC and Wells Fargo Clearing Services LLC, and Wells Fargo Securities LLC, with a main office in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Read the full story on the St. Louis Business Journal website.
