In the recent National Society of Compliance Professionals (NSCP) annual conference, many compliance leaders in the financial services industry expressed their thoughts and concerns regarding the compliance regulations affecting mobile communication in their business.
As expected, most compliance leaders are still in doubt whether they have the necessary capabilities and systems, such as enterprise messaging solutions, in place to meet the supervision requirements of FINRA, SEC, and other key industry regulators. Read on as we further discuss the latest concerns among compliance leaders with regards to the usage of new mobile communication platforms in the financial sector.
1. Keeping Up With The Fast-Changing Compliance Communication Law
New digital platforms such as chat apps and social media have rapidly evolved, making it harder for financial firms to adapt and overcome the compliance challenges they represent.
Industry regulators are also issuing new and revised versions of the regulations concerning the monitoring of electronic communications more frequently than ever – making it more challenging for companies to stay on top of the compliance burden.
To alleviate the pressure of keeping updated with the changes, many financial companies are tapping the expertise of outside consultants, especially in the area of compliance laws, mobile communication management,and technology implementation.
2. Many Companies Still Forced to Ban Text Messaging and Mobile Chat Apps
According to many advisors and compliance leaders that attended the conference, finding the right technology that can simultaneously address their client and regulatory needs remains challenging – this despite the plethora of enterprise-grade compliant messaging solutions being offered in the market today.
This lack of monitoring technology is the reason why many financial firms choose to completely ban text messaging and chat apps in their workplace. With that regard, many firms still don’t realize that a no-texting policy is not only an ineffective strategy for meeting the standards of FINRA and SEC, but it could also affect the overall efficiency of their internal communications since text messaging is now the norm among financial advisors and their clients.
3. The Need for Strategic Mobile Communication Framework
Another key topic that was discussed at the conference is the need for financial firms to create or re-evaluate their existing social media and text messaging strategies and policies. According to the panelists, communications that take place on these platforms should not be treated as different forms of business data that require separate strategies.
What they suggest instead is that these communications should be governed by a master communication governance framework. In doing so, policies will be much easier to disseminate and implement among advisors and identifying a unified technology platform, and the mobile archiving solution can be done more effectively.
4. Low Awareness About Non-Compliance Consequences Among Advisors
According to most compliance leaders, one of the most alarming yet often overlooked risks that their organizations are facing is the lack of awareness among advisors about the potential financial and legal ramifications that they could face due to non-compliant use of new mobile communication tools.
In October 2018, one financial advisor was named a respondent in a FINRA complaint alleging that he violated his member firm’s written procedures and ignored its explicit instruction by regularly using instant messaging and text messaging to communicate with firm customers in order to conduct a securities business. According to findings, the advisor did not provide copies of these communications to the firm, thus preventing them from fulfilling their archiving obligation.
Such continued deliberate dismissal of industry regulations and the hefty fines and penalties that comes along with non-compliance causes many compliance leaders to worry more on top of the ever-changing requirements. Fortunately, according to panelists, this gap in awareness should diminish soon as these violations become more widely reported in the industry press.
5. Achieving Archiving Compliance For Text Messaging and Social Media
These latest concerns facing compliance leaders in the financial industry only prove that the sector is still unprepared when it comes to utilizing new mobile communication tools such as SMS text messaging, WhatsApp and other mobile chat apps effectively and compliantly.
To help companies address these pressing compliance issues, TeleMessage offers Mobile Archiver solutions for financial firms that need an enterprise-grade messaging app that will enable their advisors to stay productive and their company to stay compliant.
Our Mobile Archiver solutions capture and record 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.
