The current business landscape changed with the introduction of a younger workforce from both the millennials and Generation Z, with their ubiquitous use of messaging apps like WhatsApp in the workplace. There are growing concerns about the use of such applications as they are not inherently complicit with WhatsApp archiving requirements of key financial regulators such as SEC, FINRA, FCA, and ESMA.
JPMorgan Chase & Company has punished many of its traders for using WhatsApp in the workplace. Using the messaging app to discuss work-related topics is apparently against the company’s rules. The company’s concern is understandable since it can’t manage the group chats, and the app’s data security measures are problematic.
JPMorgan dismissed a 20-year veteran employee, Edward Koo, for using WhatsApp for official business purposes. Koo used the messaging app to trade corporate bonds and credit derivatives, and many others followed suit. JPMorgan then cut the bonus payments of those who followed Koo’s example.
Concerns on Using WhatsApp
Companies have many concerns regarding using WhatsApp for business purposes, especially the fact that it uses end-to-end encryption to protect the messages from hackers while in transit. The encryption is problematic for businesses since it also makes it difficult to monitor the messages. The chances of employees engaging in fraud and other illegal activities using WhatsApp is thus higher, and companies wish to avoid this.
Some of WhatsApp’s features are not compliant with GDPR and other privacy regulations. As a result, Ireland’s Gaelic Athletic Association banned the use of the messaging app. Using WhatsApp for work purposes is even against the app’s legal terms of use, so it’s inherently risky to stay compliant with data regulations with WhatsApp. Right now, nearly half of all UK workers use WhatsApp illegally by using it for work purposes, but some companies still allow their use while trying to comply with regulations.
From a compliance standpoint, recording WhatsApp messages for supervision and trade monitoring purposes still remains a challenge for many financial companies. While some professionals send their chats from WhatsApp to email as a record retention tactic, it is not a sustainable and reliable solution as it is a manual process and can also result to a siloed database of communication records for the company.
As more and more people in the financial sector use WhatsApp and other private and self-deleting messaging apps to communicate with their clients, the regulatory requirements will get stricter to secure the sector. The various regulatory organizations focusing on data protection require companies to record the WhatsApp messages of their employees to mitigate risks on data breaches and frauds.
Why Companies Shouldn’t Ban WhatsApp
The concerns regarding WhatsApp remain valid, but there’s a better solution to mitigate the risks than banning the app altogether. The current coronavirus outbreak around the world has caused many companies to go for a work-from-home setup due to lockdowns in various countries.
Employees will need a means of communication with their co-workers and clients, and WhatsApp continues to be the most popular application for it. Many customers favor WhatsApp over other means of communication, and it makes sense to take advantage of the platform. Financial firms will only need to ensure that they can record and monitor the conversations occurring in the app.
Banning WhatsApp will negatively affect employees’ morale and productivity. Many of them found out that they can accomplish their tasks much faster when they used instant messaging tools like WhatsApp. An official No-WhatsApp policy can backfire and lead to more employees secretly using it as a sign of resistance.
JPMorgan’s staff will likely suffer from low morale due to the company’s measures to prohibit WhatsApp in the company. Banning WhatsApp can also limit the efficiency of the employees’ work, especially during these times where most financial companies are sending their employees to work at home due to coronavirus pandemic. Without such a platform, the employees won’t be able to communicate with many of their clients who favor communicating using the application.
Compliant Use of WhatsApp through WhatsApp Archiving
WhatsApp no longer has to be a restricted channel thanks to the fact that financial firms can now archive WhatsApp messages and comply with regulatory standards. Financial advisers can now use WhatsApp to support their everyday tasks and communicate with their clients. Companies can now use WhatsApp while staying compliant with various regulations.
Simply capturing and retaining WhatsApp messages is not enough to comply with FINRA and other regulations since such messages must also be readily available upon request. Financial organizations must be able to access and retrieve their records during the discovery phase when requested without having to request their employees to forward their chats from WhatsApp to email. Companies like JPMorgan can continue using WhatsApp while mitigating data security risks and staying compliant with regulations by using TeleMessage’s WhatsApp Archiver.
Financial companies, whether they’re on a work from home setup or not, can use either TeleMessage’s WhatsApp Phone Archiver or the WhatsApp Cloud Archiver to let their employees use WhatsApp while staying compliant. The WhatsApp Phone Archiver can capture and record chats, including texts, multimedia, documents, and deleted messages. The WhatsApp Cloud Archiver can support companies using the WhatsApp Business app.
The TeleMessage WhatsApp Archiver is the latest addition to our mobile archiving products that securely capture content from mobile carriers and mobile devices for a variety of ownership models (BYOD, CYOD, and employer-issued). It is tailor-made to solve compliance and regulation issues by capturing and archiving WhatsApp messages. The application works like the standard application, allowing employees to continue sending work-related communications easily and quickly. With our multiple archiving methods, you can always find the right tools or blend for your requirements:
TeleMessage offers cross-carrier and international mobile text & calls archiving for corporate and BYOD phones. Contact us today to try our mobile archiving products.
