(Jan 22): Banco Santander SA is planning to widen the group of staff allowed to use WhatsApp after some complained the existing partial ban is hurting business, according to people familiar with the matter.
Spain’s biggest lender is set to allow a small group of investment bankers including some in Latin America to communicate through the messaging service, according to people familiar with the matter. Some staff had previously flagged internally that the ban was making it difficult to stay in touch with clients, the people said.
Bankers who want to use the app will have to do it with tools that enable Santander to monitor the messages on their corporate devices, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing the private information. They will be added to a select list of employees exempt from a general company policy prohibiting WhatsApp for business purposes, one person said.
“Santander allows limited usage of WhatsApp messaging for certain business interactions only,” a Santander spokesperson said in a statement, declining to comment further. “All usage complies with legal and regulatory requirements.”
SEC crackdown
A few years ago, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators started cracking down on the widespread use of WhatsApp and similar services, and launched probes into a large number of financial services companies including Santander. Many of the firms subsequently agreed to pay billions of dollars cumulatively to settle the investigations.
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Santander had previously decided to remove messaging platforms including WhatsApp from phones it issued to investment bankers in Spain, Bloomberg News has reported. The move came after it emerged that some employees had kept the app on their phones despite the company ban.
The question of how to make messaging apps available to staff has long been a major challenge for many banks. While their convenience has made the services extremely popular among clients and employees alike, they are harder to monitor and archive than, say, company emails. That can result in violations of regulation requiring banks to store business communications.
Several investment banks have since explored technological solutions that let their employees use the apps while complying with the rules. One example is Deutsche Bank AG, which has trialled various offerings seeking to achieve that goal, Bloomberg News has reported.
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