NEW YORK CITY: Large Wall Street firms agreed to pay $1.8 billion in fines over failures to keep electronic records, such as text messages between employees on personal mobile phones, United States authorities announced on Tuesday.

Barclays, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs were among the firms that agreed to fines over 'long-standing failures' to maintain and preserve electronic communications that must be available to regulators in the course of oversight, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement.