BNP Paribas facing potential fine as it resolves U.S. messaging probe

PARIS (Reuters) - BNP Paribas is set to resolve a U.S. probe into employees' use of unapproved messaging platforms, its mid-year earnings report showed on Thursday, which could see the French bank face a fine.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2021 began examining how Wall Street banks were keeping track of employees' digital communications, including email and apps like WhatsApp.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) later also examined the issue, bank disclosures showed.

BNP set aside 125 million euros ($139 million) for an unspecified litigation in its earning report. A spokesperson for the French lender declined to elaborate on the nature of that provision.

The bank said it had reached "proposed resolutions" with the CFTC and SEC following a probe linked to "compliance with records preservation requirements relating to the use of unapproved electronic messaging platforms for business communications."

"The proposed resolutions are subject to finalisation by the CFTC and SEC," BNP, the euro zone's biggest bank, added.

French rival Societe Generale said earlier this year that it, too, had been drawn into the probe.

Britain's HSBC agreed to pay $75 million to settle CFTC charges related to manipulative and deceptive trading and record-keeping failures, the U.S. regulator said in May.

More than a dozen banks agreed to pay a total of $1.8 billion for such violations in September.

($1 = 0.8981 euros)

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; editing by Jason Neely)

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