British Petroleum has terminated four trading and operation staff who deal with Chinese crude oil sales as a result of an internal investigation into trades with Singapore’s Hontop Energy. Three people familiar with the matter cited the improper use of the WeChat messaging platform as a tool for commercial discussions with counterparties as one of the factors behind the termination. It must be noted that WeChat compliance is a critical issue for financial and other firms across the European continent.
BP said it usually doesn’t comment on personnel matters or on its WeChat use policy. WeChat trading is prohibited by many companies, though it is not clear if BP’s communication policy has anything on WeChat trading or on official use of WeChat for communication. However, it is true that financial firms and other major companies take WeChat compliance seriously and have strict policies in place on the use of WeChat for business communication. WeChat recording and WeChat archiving are mandated by various regulations as well.
The decision was made in the first week of October, the people said. The staff had been placed on leave during early July, while BP was conducting the investigation. The staff worked in crude trading and operations roles in Singapore and Shanghai, it is said.
BP trading staff, including those terminated in early October, were named in a court document filed by Malaysian lender CIMB as part of its request to the Singapore High Court to place Hontop Energy under judicial management.
CIMB Bank claimed that it had agreed to finance Hontop to purchase oil that would be sold on to BP and Hontop had provided names of specific traders at BP as proof of contract.
While the bank sought payment from BP in February, the oil giant told the bank that the contract and payment had been subject to a separate agreement between BP and Hontop. And as they haven’t got payment from Hontop, it was not obliged to pay Hontop or CIMB for the cargo.
The oil major has not been implicated in any wrongdoing in the court proceedings.
Business firms must educate their employees on their WeChat compliance policies and on how various regulations make it mandatory for firms to do WeChat recording and WeChat archiving. Violations of these regulations could mean fines, civil liability or suspension. However, it is entirely possible to use the mobile app and desktop versions of WeChat by following WeChat compliance policies. Using applications to monitor, capture and archive WeChat communication, business firms can allow their traders to continue using WeChat for conducting genuine trading practices.
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