Financial service firms demonstrated that remote and hybrid work could be adopted successfully. Generally, it involved adopting more flexible modern solutions to remotely complete tasks that normally require physical operations.
For example, companies embraced communication tools as alternatives to regular cross-desk inquiries and water cooler talks. In the lack of conferences and live events, virtual meetings have replaced boardroom talks, and social media has become a critical networking tool.
Widespread adoption of communication and collaboration platforms like Slack, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams erupted across the globe. The situation also triggered the need for a BYOD (bring your own device) movement. This entailed an increase in the number of workers utilizing personal phones or tablets for business as a result of this new generation of tools.
The unprecedented growth of digital communication technologies in regulated firms has prompted regulatory bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to amend existing compliance rules and introduce new ones to address the needs of hybrid working models. Regulators hoped that by doing so, the registered businesses would increase their efforts to comply with new digital communication technology. SEC, which was formed to protect investors in the securities market in the United States, updated its enforcement efforts to ensure that companies have proper monitoring and archiving systems in place for business communications.
New issuances clarify that covered entities need to capture, archive, and save electronic communications, including the MiFID voice recording that the business conducts. The changing working setup requires companies to employ data archiving solutions to capture and store data from various communication channels. And organizations have to follow because the regulatory agencies perform reviews like WeChat risk assessment to confirm that firms are in compliance.
Read more about the details of the SEC and FINRA communication compliance requirements in an infographic from Telemessage.
