SEC Fines Blackstone, KKR, Apollo, Others in Texting Crackdown

Affiliates of Blackstone Inc., KKR & Co., Apollo Global Management Inc. and Charles Schwab Corp. are among a dozen investment advisers and brokerages that will collectively pay more than $63 million for failing to track employees’ use of unauthorized communications platforms.

The settlements, announced by the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, extend the agency’s crackdown on Wall Streeters’ once-freewheeling use of texts and other messaging apps for business that is supposed to be monitored and archived by employers.

In the latest round, nine investment advisers and three broker-dealers admitted violating record-keeping rules and vowed to improve ...