Theta Lake Blog

2023 Regulatory Priorities from SEC & FINRA: Key Takeaways for Compliant Communications

Posted by Stacey English on Feb 16, 2023 7:52:57 AM

At a Glance

Both the SECand FINRAhave announced their examination priorities for 2023 giving investment advisers and broker dealers important insight into the areas to include in their compliance monitoring plans. For those tasked with maintaining compliance, security and data privacy across an organization’s unified communications there are specific areas to focus on to ensure the continuing deployment and use of platforms meet regulatory expectations, including:

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When It Comes To Modern Communications, Data Protection Is Now More Important Than Ever

Posted by Susannah Hammond on Jan 23, 2023 1:17:53 PM

Data protectionis now more important than ever. Given the new ways of working and communicating there are increasing amounts of personally identifiable information (PII) and personal health information (PHI) data shared across communication platforms and firms are expected to be able to capture and retain safely as well as retrieve and delete personal data. Critical issues that should take center stage in data privacy week.

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Regulatory Perspectives by Theta Lake: FINRA’s continuing focus on communications compliance

Posted by Susannah Hammond on Jan 19, 2023 7:32:09 AM

The last quarter of 2022 saw FINRA continue its focus on communications compliance. Four brokers and a compliance officer faced disciplinary action for a range of breaches of their approach to supervision and an inability to retrieve phone records.

For the key lessons to be learnt together with more detail of the enforcement please click here. 

At a high level the disciplinary actions resulted in censures, a 40 day prohibition, fines totalling over $2m, restitution of nearly $50,000 and wide ranging remedial actions.

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Don't Put The Compliance Brakes On Digital Transformation

Posted by Garth Landers on Dec 20, 2022 8:18:09 AM

Digital Transformation - Evergreen but Transformational

Digital transformation is a concept that has been around for a while, and one you’ve no doubt heard about.  Analysts, consultants and social media pundits love it- as it can be widely ascribed to any number of IT/business initiatives. 

Digital transformation is defined by Salesforce as the process of using digital technologies to create new — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements. Digital transformation benefits to an organization include the potential to accelerate corporate growth, change and reinvention through new market opportunities. 

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Regulatory Perspectives From Theta Lake: UK market abuse £5m fine, lessons for communications compliance

Posted by Susannah Hammond on Dec 15, 2022 7:56:49 AM

UK regulator fines a trio of brokers almost £5m for failing to have appropriate communications compliance processes in place to fulfil market abuse obligations

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THETA LAKE’S PREDICTIONS 2023

Posted by Susannah Hammond on Nov 29, 2022 8:00:00 AM
Theta Lake has taken a look in its crystal ball to consider what is likely to be a priority for firms in 2023. What is crystal clear is that now, more than ever, organizations need a modern approach to compliance and security across their modern unified communications (UC) like Zoom , Microsoft Teams , Webex by Cisco , RingCentral and Slack to not only tackle today’s challenges but also thrive into the future.
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Introducing Meetings Risk Manager

Posted by Garth Landers on Nov 8, 2022 7:00:00 AM

With the rapid adoption of virtual meeting platforms like Zoom over the past few years, the way we work has been transformed. These platforms are much more than a way to have a discussion and go beyond replacing phone conversations, users can share content, collaborate with people outside of their organization and use chat in-meeting. While the early stages of pandemic adoption were all about enabling workers and maintaining productivity, organizations are beginning to settle in and make streamlined decisions about which platforms to retain and how to secure them. The risk of insider threats and potential data loss, in addition to human error and carelessness can lead to any number of possible bad outcomes- data breaches, loss of intellectual property, and more.

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Regulatory Perspectives From Theta Lake: SEC 17a-4 Modernization

Posted by Marc Gilman on Nov 1, 2022 7:00:00 AM

When it comes to dynamic messaging content from collaboration tools like Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams as well as SMS, mobile messaging, and consumer applications like WhatsApp, the SEC’s updated recordkeeping Rule 17a-4 announced on October 12, 2022 signals a sea change for broker-dealers. The SEC replaced its antiquated “non-erasable, non-rewritable” electronic recordkeeping requirement in place since the late-90s with a technology-neutral approach centered around audit trail data, which provides far greater flexibility in implementation.

At Theta Lake, we welcome the modernization of Rule 17a-4 as it allows our financial services customers to more easily manage archiving controls for SEC-regulated electronic communications records.  In addition, the spirit and letter of the revised Rule aligns with Theta Lake’s modern approach to the capture, retention, and supervision of complex, interactive video, voice, chat, and email conversation data.

As we noted in our 2022 Modern Communications Security and Compliance Report, 97% of firms are using two or more communication tools, so the ability to seamlessly and compliantly capture dynamic data across a range of platforms is key.  With over 100+ platform integrations, Theta Lake enables easy and effective compliance with the SEC’s new recordkeeping requirements.

For customers, the updated Rule 17a-4(f) offers a flexible, audit trail-based option that makes it easier to retain dynamic data from electronic communications to databases and beyond.  The revised Rule 17a-4(f)(2)(i)(A) allows broker-dealers to:

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2022 Modern Communications Compliance and Security Report

Posted by Stacey English on Oct 27, 2022 9:47:01 AM

Theta Lake has published its fourth annual survey report on modern communications compliance and security, highlighting the complex challenges faced by those tasked with maintaining compliance, security and data privacy. The report is based on the views and experiences of more than 500 compliance and security professionals from the heavily-regulated financial services, healthcare and government sectors across the U.S., the U.K. and Canada. It provides a snapshot of how communication platforms are being used and the issues organizations are struggling with, enabling them to benchmark their own practices and expectations against the wider industry, identifying any gaps or areas of exposure they may have.

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Topics: compliance, data leakage, zoom, Microsoft Teams, record-keeping, communications, WhatsApp, SMS, archiving

Regulatory Perspectives From Theta Lake: Analysis on the U.S. DOJ's new Compliance Guidance for Prosecutors

Posted by Susannah Hammond on Oct 18, 2022 9:33:00 AM

Digesting and implementing the U.S. DOJ’s new compliance guidance for prosecutors on the use of personal devices and third party apps


At a glance

The DOJ has expanded its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs and identified several additional hallmarks of an effective compliance program including:

  • Effective policies and procedures governing the use of personal devices and third-party messaging platforms to ensure that business-related electronic data and communications are preserved 
  • ‘Clear training’ provided to all employees about such policies (the 2020 guidance also stipulates that organizations should measure the effectiveness of training), and
  • Policies enforced when violations are identified

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Theta Lake provides security and compliance for modern collaboration platforms using frictionless partner integrations with Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, RingCentral, Slack, Zoom, and more. Using patented machine learning and NLP, Theta Lake detects risks in: video, voice, chat, and document content across what is shared, shown, spoken, and typed. Those risks are surfaced in an AI-assisted, patent-pending review workspace that adds consistency, efficiency, and scale for security and compliance teams. All of this enables organizations to safely realize the full ROI of a collaboration-first workplace while reducing the cost of security and compliance.

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