Morgan and email

Once again Morgan Stanley has been penalized for failure to produce emails. The Wall Street giant will pay $12.5 million to FINRA to settle charges that they erroneously told arbitration claiments that emails they were requesting were destroyed on 9/11. Eventually, the emails were found on a back-up server. Morgan further complicated their position by permitting employees to delete the emails by writing over the tapes.

This is the latest in a slew of email related issues for Morgan. Last year, the firm was fined $15 million by the SEC for failing to produce emails pertaining to the regulator’s investigation into the analyst conflict issue.

From afar, ongoing issues with document retention is troubling. Email and document retention is a fairly simple process to create and, via determined education of employees and assignment of responsibility, easy to implement. Perhaps the Morgan Giant has gotten too bogged down with its systems and interconnecting businesses to keep things organized.

Regardless, it is reminder for the rest of us to be sure to keep documentation at the top of the priority list.