Compliance leaders play a crucial role in financial organizations, responsible for ensuring that the organization operates in accordance with regulatory requirements and ethical standards. A key aspect of their role is to ensure that every employee communication is properly archived, which is becoming increasingly important in today’s digital world.
Regulatory Compliance
Regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act require financial organizations to maintain and provide access to all relevant business communications, including emails, instant messages, and other forms of electronic communication. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in hefty fines and reputational damage. This is the archiving compliance requirement.
Maintain A Complete Communication Archive
To meet these regulatory requirements, compliance leaders must ensure that their organization has a robust archiving system in place. This system must be able to capture, store, and retrieve every employee communication, including those sent from personal devices or third-party platforms. It is not enough to simply have a system in place, compliance leaders must also ensure that the system is complete, secure, and accessible.
Be Ready for Regulatory Audits
According to a study by Osterman Research, 93% of organizations surveyed reported that they had experienced an e-discovery request, and 59% of those requests required the production of employee communications. This highlights the importance of having a complete and easy-to-use archiving system in place.
Compliance leaders also need to ensure that their organization’s archiving system is able to keep pace with technology changes. As new communication channels emerge, such as instant messaging apps and social media platforms, compliance leaders must ensure that their archiving system can capture these communications.
Safeguard and Archive All Original Communication
In addition, the archiving system must be able to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access. This requires the implementation of appropriate security controls, such as encryption and access controls.
To achieve these goals, compliance leaders often rely on technology solutions, such as archiving software and data management tools. These solutions can help automate the archiving process, ensuring that all communications are captured and stored in a timely and accurate manner.
Keep Full Communication Records Safe
In conclusion, compliance leaders play a critical role in financial organizations by ensuring that employee communications are properly archived. This requires a comprehensive and secure archiving system that is able to keep pace with technology changes and protect sensitive information. By investing in the right technology solutions, compliance leaders can help their organization meet regulatory requirements and reduce the risk of costly fines and reputational damage.
Sources:
- “Compliance Archiving: Key Considerations for Financial Services Firms,” Osterman Research, https://www.mimecast.com/globalassets/documents/whitepapers/compliance-archiving-key-considerations-for-financial-services-firms.pdf
- “Archiving Best Practices for Financial Services Firms,” Proofpoint, https://www.proofpoint.com/sites/default/files/gated_resources/white-paper-best-practices-for-archiving-in-financial-services_0.pdf
- “Why Financial Services Firms Need Archiving Solutions,” Smarsh, https://www.smarsh.com/blog/why-financial-services-firms-need-archiving-solutions/