The financial services sector is presently one of the most rapidly-evolving sectors, given the technological advances unfolding around banks, investment houses, and brokerage firms. It is also considered the leading industry when it comes to embracing mobile-based solutions such as Chat Banking and enterprise-grade text messaging for better service delivery, improved customer experience, and more efficient workplace communications.
But while the benefits that technologies such as SMS/text messaging, collaboration apps, and social media are clearly visible, a financial firm must not forget the archiving compliance challenges that come with them.Read on as we detail in this post the top mobile message archiving and supervision challenges that financial services companies face in 2018.
1. Understanding and Enforcing New and Ever-Changing Industry Regulations
Both the FINRA and SEC issue new and updated versions of their existing record keeping requirements to ensure that their standards are up-to-date with the ever-expanding communication channels in the financial industry. As such, financial firms face increased complexity in ensuring that all their existing policies and platforms are compliant with these new regulations.
Disseminating compliance knowledge is a related challenge for financial firms which must process a wealth of information to identify what is important from a regulatory perspective and to which key role/s in the organization it is important. To address this issue, it is important for financial organizations to have a clear role of who must take charge of the compliance program and who will enforce the rules and hold employees at all levels accountable.
2. Archiving and Supervising Non-Email Communication Channels
The shifting demographics of the employees and of the firm’s customer bases is one of the primary causes of the sudden surge of non-email channels in the workplace such as SMS/text messaging, chat apps and social media.
While companies have the choice to ban these platforms so as to not compromise their existing archiving practices, most firms do not think it is a smart move as it may affect their operational efficiency and customer service. In fact, among financial firms that prohibit the use of text messaging, only 44% can confidently prove that their prohibition efforts are effective.
In order to archive and supervise non-email channels and enable the employees to conduct business on the mobile platforms they prefer, it is critical for financial firms to invest in an enterprise mobile archiving solution. While it may seem like just another expense, the benefit of using a business-grade archiving solution can far outweigh its costs and the headaches and financial damages that non-compliance can inflict on the business.
3. Managing Cybersecurity Risks Involving Electronic Messaging Platforms
Further compliance risks also come from known security vulnerabilities in mobile messaging apps installed on phones. App vulnerabilities can provide easy access for hackers to install malware into the organization’s mobile devices, which can then spread throughout the corporate network and lead to severe data breach.
In order to avoid such an outcome, financial firms should consider issuing a regular list to the staff of apps that currently have security concerns. Issuing an app watch list and asking employees to take extra precaution when using those apps while at work is a more effective approach than banning a certain messaging app since security patches and updates may fix its vulnerabilities and make it a viable option for your employees again.
4. Increased Regulatory Examinations
Regulatory examinations have become more frequent in the financial sector. In fact, 28% of companies reported that they had been examined in the last six months, and roughly 50% of companies reported that they had been examined within the previous year.
During a regulatory examination, financial firms are asked to produce copies of archived electronic content, such as text messaging, emails, voice calls, and social media posts. According to 2017 report from Eversheds Sutherland, electronic communication capture and retention cases accounted for the third biggest amount of fines assessed by FINRA – and is the first time such cases have appeared on Eversheds Sutherland’s Top Enforcement Issues list since its first-place ranking in 2013.
As regulatory scrutiny towards archiving and supervision of electronic communications grows, financial firms must be more proactive in addressing the unique compliance requirements for each of these mobile communication channels.
These pressing challenges coming from regulators, investors, customers, and other stakeholder simply that financial firms must be more adamant in establishing effective policies and reassess their archiving practices and platforms to ensure that they will remain compliant with the regulatory standards.
TeleMessage’s Mobile Archiver solution is a platform that can effectively address compliance, regulatory and eDiscovery response requirements in the financial industry. TeleMessage records mobile content, including SMS, MMS, Calls, and even chat logs from popular apps such as WhatsApp. Messages are securely and reliably retained within TeleMessage servers or forwarded to an archiving data storage vendor of your choice.
Our mobile archiving products securely capture content from mobile carriers and mobile devices for a variety of ownership models (BYOD, CYOD, and employer-issued). With our multiple archiving solutions, 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.
