Financial services firms have long used technology to supervise the communications and activities of employees, to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and be able to detect issues such as market abuse, mis-selling or data privacy. It’s a key control for meeting regulatory obligations including MiFID II,  CFTC, FINRA, IIROC and GDPR and a standard feature of working in a regulated industry. Likewise data loss prevention tools are commonplace across businesses to reduce the risks of data loss and exposure.  All designed to protect consumers, employees, and shareholders.  

The rapidly increasing use of chat in modern work-from-anywhere workplaces has exposed new compliance, privacy, and security risks. Not least the need to comply with regulatory obligations for retention, supervision, privacy and security mandated by regulators worldwide.

Billions of dollars in fines and rising

Nearly half a billion dollars in fines announced by the European Commission for trading cartels involving ten global banks is a stark reminder of the challenges firms face in monitoring chat and instant messages to detect misconduct. Communications in chat rooms enabled the sharing of commercially sensitive information to go undetected for several years.

A question we often hear from customers is: “How do I manage the sheer volume of content, and how do I get the right reviewers to supervise it?”

If the last 14 months have taught us anything, it is the importance of being able to pivot not only quickly, but securely. For many organizations, that requires leaning into unified communication and collaboration platforms in ways they never have before. The concept of “work from anywhere” has gained traction within the last year and organizations that have been able to embrace the concept and continue to build trusted relationships with their customers saw an increase in business because they were able to adapt. Implementing unified communication and collaboration tools was a strategic move, and as a result, organizations were able to deliver superior client experiences. In a recent webinar, “Using Theta Lake Compliance to Maximize your ROI with RingCentral,” Daniel Bridges, former CTO of Attivo Group, explains how Theta Lake and RingCentral transformed his organization and enabled him to offer a more seamless client experience.

Archiving and Data Protection 

An independent survey by Osterman Research, and sponsored by Theta Lake, sought the views of 142 IT decision-makers in mid to large organizations using Microsoft Teams. Participants were asked in-depth questions about their organization’s capabilities and challenges in relation to archiving and protecting the many data types produced within the platform.

Nineteen video meetings in one day is Zoom CEO Eric S. Yuan’s personal record.   It’s a new way of working that many can relate to, and similarly struggle to get through.  The notion that extensive on-screen calls cause feelings of fatigue is supported by Microsoft’s own research.   But it’s not just the ‘constraints of video conferencing technology, when combined with increased cadence in meetings’ that’s causing fatigue, it’s the fact that video calls also require more engagement and concentration.  The absence of the non-verbal cues we’d normally rely on in person, the need for sustained attention through meetings and a lack of variety in what’s shown on screen are all contributors.

Serving clients for more than 50 years, Tupicoffs is Australia's leading independent financial planning practice. With the commitment to unbiased advice, Tupicoffs prides itself on delivering exceptional service with a drive for impeccable compliance.  

On March 3, 2021, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”) announced its 2021 Exam Priorities—the first such missive in the pandemic era. The Commission’s ability to be flexible and nimble in its approach to 2020 exams and plans for this year are laudable. To bolster that effectiveness, the recently created Event and Emerging Risk Examination Team will improve and expand OCIE’s rapid response capabilities. (I wrote more about the EERT here). Based on this year’s priorities, OCIE and EERT will be very busy in 2021.