US securities regulators may fine six investment banks as much as $10 million for not keeping e-mail messages as required, according to a report in the New York Times.
The New York Times report says officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission, NASD and the New York Stock Exchange proposed the fines as part of a settlement of inquiries into the disposal of e-mail messages relating to possible conflicts of interest among stock analysts.
The six Wall Street firms at the centre of the investigation are the Salomon Smith Barney unit of Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, the Goldman Sachs Group, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and US Bancorp Piper Jaffray.
According to the report, the firms failed to produce to all of their e-mail messages for the last three years as required under US regulatory rules.