SEC Fines JPMorgan Chase $4 Million for Accidental Deletion of 47 Million Emails.

JPMorgan Chase has incurred a $4 million fine from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) due to the inadvertent deletion of 47 million emails, including some that were of interest to the regulatory watchdog.

The SEC has revealed that a significant number of the permanently deleted emails were originally sought through subpoenas as part of numerous regulatory investigations. An administrative order states, "Given that the deleted records are irretrievable, it remains uncertain - and impossible to determine - the impact the lost records may have had on the regulatory investigations."

The accidental deletion occurred in 2019 when JPMorgan staff were troubleshooting an issue related to a project aimed at deleting outdated communications that were no longer required to be retained. Approximately 8,700 employee mailboxes were affected, leading to the deletion of communications from the first quarter of 2018.

Staff members mistakenly believed that all the documents were coded in a manner that would prevent permanent deletion, based on assurances from the bank's archiving vendor. However, the default retention settings were not applied to a specific email domain, resulting in the permanent loss of those communications.

JPMorgan became aware of the problem towards the end of 2019 and promptly notified the SEC in January 2020.

This recent fine follows another penalty imposed on JPMorgan in 2021, where the company was fined $125 million for its failure to preserve text messages and other forms of communication sent between 2018 and 2020.