Apollo Global Management, Carlyle Group and KKR & Co said in regulatory filings this week that they received letters from the Securities and Exchange Commission on their use of electronic messaging for business.

Financial firms must follow rules to monitor business communications to head off improper conduct. Investment advisers and money managers are required to retain records related to the provision of investment advice. 

The use of WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and other chat apps has become prevalent since the pandemic forced traders and dealmakers to work from home. Many of these apps have functions to make messages automatically disappear, and financial-firm employee use of the apps represents potential violations of SEC regulations. 

The SEC sent letters to dozens of investment firms in recent weeks as part of the probe. Over the past year, banking giants including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs Group have paid a record combined $2-billion in SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission penalties to settle related allegations.

Receiving a request for information doesn’t imply wrongdoing. Representatives for Carlyle, Apollo and KKR declined to comment. An SEC spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Carlyle in a filing said that it received a request for information from the SEC “related to the preservation of certain types of electronic business communications” that could include “text messages and messages on WhatsApp, WeChat and similar applications.” The firm said it intends to cooperate fully with the inquiry. 

Certain Apollo investment-adviser subsidiaries have received a request from the SEC for information and documents related to an investigation into compliance with record retention requirements for business communications through electronic messaging, according to a filing.

KKR is cooperating with the inquiry into business-related electronic communications, which it doesn’t believe will have a material adverse effect on its financial condition or results of operations, its filing shows. BM/DM