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Finra gave its member brokerage firms a spoiler alert on Thursday regarding the implementation of investment-advice reform this summer.

Provides secure and easy archiving, search and play back of voice content from virtually any recording system, strengthening risk and compliance initiatives

The use of "collaboration" applications including Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business is a growing risk to investment adviser electronic communication compliance, according to a new survey of IT and compliance professionals.

Smarsh Survey Finds Financial Firms Must Embrace Mobile, Social and Collaboration Technologies

I’ve been a tech nerd for as long as I can remember but grew up in a small town in the Central Valley where oil and ag are kings. Then in high school, while tending to a hot pizza oven, I had an epiphany – if I wanted to make money in tech, I needed to be in the Bay Area. So, I loaded up the truck and I moved to S. Valley, first to San Jose State, then later onto Stanford, and have been in tech ever since. Along the way, I became interested in tech that addresses use cases of litigation, governance, and compliance, and have been in that space for the past 15 years. I came to Smarsh via our merger with Actiance, who I joined in 2015 to help them establish a market leadership position.

The Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act (COPRA) gives Americans control over their personal data; prohibits companies from using consumers’ data to harm or deceive them; establishes strict standards for the collection, use, sharing, and protection of consumer data; protects civil rights; and penalizes companies that fail to meet data protection standards. The legislation also codifies the rights of individuals to pursue claims against entities that violate their data privacy rights.

A new digital privacy bill has been introduced to the the Senate, which would give the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) more teeth when it comes to providing oversight on tech companies’ use of consumer data.

The new Senate bill, dubbed the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act (COPRA), is a very common-sense bill. Companies would be responsible for getting permission to collect and share sensitive data, including biometric information and locations. Companies must not collect more information than they really need. And, under the proposed bill, consumers would be able to ask companies for all the information that had been collected about them, and for the data to be deleted or corrected.

The Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act would establish a new bureau within the Federal Trade Commission to enforce digital privacy rules.

Financial Firms Struggling with E-Communication Compliance: 401K Specialist Magazine

ASE regularly reports on electronic communications policy concerns and developments so our members can maintain their best policy and practices as well as make adjustments to their policies when necessary.

In a recent survey conducted by communications archiving provider Smarsh, it reports that 77% of the IT professionals surveyed said texting by workers presented the greatest compliance risk. How is this risk increased? Robert Cruz, Smarsh Information Services Senior Director cites employees and employers “leveraging review platforms that were not designed for text messages.” What does this mean? As an example of some texting problems, he states “Now you have communications sprinkled with more emojis and nontext characters” which can be significant in the conveyance of sentiment.

Financial firms' communications compliance may never have been entirely easy. But the explosion of mobile technology, social media, chat and collaboration platforms raises to new levels not just the difficulty of monitoring huge and growing volumes of messaging, but also cybersecurity and third-party-risk vulnerabilities, Smarsh points out in its 2019 Electronic Communications Compliance Survey.

Smarsh, helping customers get ahead of the risk within their electronic communications, released its ninth annual Electronic Communications Compliance Survey Report. The survey of more than 300 compliance professionals in the financial services industry finds that organizations must rethink their approaches to the adoption, retention and oversight of electronic communications to accommodate modern electronic communication technologies in the workplace, including personal mobile devices.