Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Bethany Dugan, Deputy Comptroller for Operational Risk at the OCC
Remember the chat rooms dubbed “The Cartel” and “The Bandits Club” that contributed to felony counts against the mega Wall Street banks last May for rigging the foreign currency markets? How about that classic from the Barclays chat room trader: “if you aint cheating, you aint trying.”
Well, apparently, one or more banks are causing concerns in this area again.
Yesterday, the regulator of national banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, sent out a severe warning to its flock that there could be a five year jail sentence waiting in the wings for anyone attempting to use technology to block its mandated access to bank records. The letter was authored by Bethany Dugan, Deputy Comptroller for Operational Risk. The statement read in part:
“The OCC has become aware of communications technology recently made available to banks that could prevent or impede OCC access to bank records through certain data deletion or encryption features.” Another part of the memo honed in on the chat room issue, noting that “…OCC is aware that some chat and messaging platforms have touted an ability to ‘guarantee’ the deletion of transmitted messages. The permanent deletion of internal communications, especially if occurring within a relatively short time frame, conflicts with OCC expectations of sound governance, compliance, and risk management practices as well as safety and soundness principles.”
Curiously, a footnote called out the Board and bank management of unnamed banks, suggesting that there has been a concerted effort to block the OCC examiners from access to chat rooms and/or to speak directly to bank staff:
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