Downstream WhatsApp Regulatory Woes for Wealth Managers

August 13, 2022

Why? Many instant messaging apps – including the leading platform in this segment, WhatsApp – aren’t being supervised appropriately, and the content isn’t being captured and archived as regulators expect and demand.

And the regulators are coming down hard on offending parties. In July, Morgan Stanley reported that it will likely need to pay as much as $200 million in fines for not monitoring employee use of unauthorized instant messaging apps. 


Wealth Solutions Report



Instant messaging apps continue to rise in use across the world, and that’s causing agita for compliance professionals at major global financial institutions, and the regulators who oversee them – At least in the U.S.


By Lindsey Hawkins October 28, 2025
Arbitration IQ provides expert testimony to securities law attorneys, claimants, respondents and regulators in actions involving securities law. The firm is founded and led by Sander Ressler, who ranks among the nation’s most sought-after securities law expert witnesses. He has worked on more than 600 arbitration cases, provided testimony in 150 hearings and worked with more than 70 law firms. Learn more at: www.arbitrationiq.com.
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A federal judge in Brooklyn last week approved the release of $400 million in funds to some of the beleaguered investors in GPB Capital Holdings who have not seen a nickel or returns since 2018, when the private placement investment scheme began to unravel.  Meanwhile, the sentencing of two top GPB executives, founder David Gentile, and broker-dealer and sale chief Jeff Schneider, was scheduled for this week but has been moved to May, according to court filings. Last August, a jury in federal court in Brooklyn found Gentile guilty of five counts of fraud and Schneider three. The federal government’s charges stemmed from their management of GPB Capital Holdings, which was founded in 2013, GPB Capital. The money manager sold its high risk private placements through dozens of independent broker-dealers and five years later had raised $1.8 billion from wealthy clients looking for yield in a decade ago when interest rates were next to zero.