European Union antitrust regulators have asked banks to hand over the Facebook messages of foreign exchange traders, according to Bloomberg.
The requests are part of the investigation into allegations of foreign exchange rate rigging by banks, with lawmakers seeking to extend their trawl for evidence beyond email and instant messaging records.
Citing sources, Bloomberg says that some, but not all, banks being probed by the EU have been asked for details of social media communications amid concerns that emails and IMs have been destroyed.
Logs of chats between traders on Bloomberg terminals and Thomson Reuters desktops have already formed a central plank of investigations into FX manipulation, as well as the Libor fixing scandal.
Banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, RBS and Citigroup, have responded by banning some staff from using traditional channels like chat rooms but social media communications are more difficult to control.