JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, is weighing whether to ban traders from using electronic chat rooms to communicate with peers at other firms as the forums draw scrutiny from global regulators, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
JPMorgan’s deliberations, which should be complete by early 2014, focus on multi-dealer chat rooms for currencies and other asset classes, said the person, who requested anonymity because the talks are private. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain’s biggest publicly owned lender, and Zurich-based Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-largest bank, also are reviewing chat room use, two other people said.
Regulators have targeted traders’ electronic messages, using them as evidence of wrongdoing in their investigations into the manipulation of benchmark interest rates and foreign exchange markets. During a visit to London last month, JPMorgan chief executive officer Jamie Dimon called on employees to be vigilant about language in e-mails and instant messages, two people with knowledge of the matter said then.
JPMorgan may encourage traders to use phones and e-mails rather than chat rooms to assist clients in large currency transactions, the person with knowledge of the matter said.
Barclays PLC, UBS AG and New York-based Citigroup Inc. also are among banks reviewing the use of chat rooms, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing unidentified people at those companies and others that do business with them.
Spokesmen for New York-based JPMorgan, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, RBS, Barclays and UBS all declined to comment.
