Multinational: Amid banking probes, execs consider blocking chat room access

Amid investigations into some of the globe’s largest banks, reports say the lenders are now considering blocking employee access to Internet chat rooms, which connect banks and other financial companies and have been blamed by some for the cause of collusion in the banking industry.

According to the Wall Street Journal, JP Morgan Chase and Co and Credit Suisse are considering such internal blocks; RBS, Barclays and Citigroup were also named in reports as reviewing electronic chats between employees.

Following investigations across the globe into market manipulation, LIBOR benchmark manipulation and other forms of collusion, the Internet chat rooms have been highlighted as a potential source of unlawful collusion between traders.

Transcripts of online exchanges between traders have been collected by regulators in the US, UK, EU, Switzerland and others, as part of evidence-gathering in their probes of the alleged market manipulation.

Full Content: ZDNet

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