The UK Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) has, for the first time, used its powers tofine a firm over £5.4m for failure to record and retain electronic trading communications. Between January 2018 and March 2020 the firm did not record or retain the communications made by wholesale energy traders, on privately-owned phones via WhatsApp, which discussed energy market transactions. The initial fine was £7,730,213 but as the firm admitted the breach and agreed to settle the matter, the fine was discounted by 30% and, accordingly, the penalty was reduced to £5,411,149.

Regulators and policymakers around the world remain focused on culture and conduct risk. Indeed, Ian Johnston, Chief Executive of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, has gone so far as to suggest that conduct risk could be considered the "new" prudential risk. In an article for Starling Insights, Johnson wrote "Until events of the past couple of months, I would have said ‘no’. But perhaps the Credit Suisse matter shows that a string of misconduct episodes might sufficiently affect the reputation of an institution that confidence could be eroded. And we know where that can lead."

The U.S. regulators the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have, once again, fined a raft of firms for ‘widespread and longstanding failures by the firms and their employees to maintain and preserve electronic communications.’

The UK Financial Conduct Authority has published consultative guidance on how its financial promotion requirements apply to promotions on social media. By definition, all financial promotions should be fair, clear and not misleading. The FCA’s financial promotion rules are deliberately designed to be technology neutral and apply across all channels used to advertise, including social media.

In today's dynamic business environment, with teams often distributed across multiple geographies, effective work management is crucial for organizations to stay organized, collaborate efficiently, and meet project deadlines. To streamline work processes and enhance productivity, many companies rely on popular work management tools like Asana and Monday.com. However, ensuring compliance and mitigating risks associated with these platforms can be challenging. 

A new market category for communications compliance

On July 14, Gartner introduced a new market segment called Digital Communications Governance in two of their Hype Cycles, in both Storage and Data Protection and Data Security. Gartner clients use Hype Cycles to evaluate the maturity, adoption, and social application of specific technologies. Gartner listed Theta Lake as a sample vendor in this category.

Artificial intelligence or AI and its new, generative, iteration has hit the headlines. Depending on where you look the likes of ChatGPT is either going to save the world or be the cause of armageddon. Somewhere in between financial services firms need to navigate the real-world use case(s) for AI in a competitive marketplace where the successful deployment of AI has the potential for substantial cost savings and efficiencies.

In a panel at the FINRA annual conference in May, a segment was devoted to FINRA’s evolving examination focus on the use of text messaging by firms and the issues associated with unmonitored communications channels. Michael Solomon, head of FINRA's national examination program made a series of compliance observations related to text messaging based on recent experiences engaging with U.S. broker-dealers:

Since 2018, Theta Lake has partnered with Zoom to provide cutting-edge compliance and security for Zoom's unified communications (UC) suite. Our expertise in delivering deep purpose-built compliance and security technology perfectly complements Zoom, particularly in addressing the compliance and security requirements of risk sensitive and highly regulated organizations when using Zoom. This evolving partnership has delivered significant value to leading organizations, including five of the top ten North American Banks, and resulted in Zoom's investment in Theta Lake in 2022. By leveraging this partnership, customers have the confidence to maximize comprehensive and compliant access to the latest Zoom apps and features.

With the most certified compliance and security apps on Zoom Marketplace, Theta Lake continually enhances our integration and deep technology to ensure every new Zoom innovation is covered with cutting-edge compliance.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a ten point checklist for firms to consider ahead of the Consumer Duty coming into force on July 31, 2023. The Consumer Duty is a significant shift in regulatory expectations and will apply to new and existing products and services that are open for sale or renewal.