Some Brokerages Tape Phone Calls: Several top...

Some Brokerages Tape Phone Calls: Several top Wall Street firms began secretly tape recording their traders’ telephone calls with customers shortly after the 1987 stock market crash in an effort to sort out confused trading records, according to a story in New York Magazine. The story said the tape recordings helped clear up disputes over deals but have been seized by authorities and used in insider trading investigations. Traders at Merrill Lynch & Co., Kidder Peabody & Co. and Prudential Bache--which have been taping conversations since October, 1987--knew the calls were being taped but their customers did not, the story said. Federal law allows taping of conversations as long as one party is aware that it is taking place.