This post was originally published by Marianna Shafir at Smarsh.
For companies in financial services, working from home during this crisis while staying compliant can be challenging. Whether it’s a broker-dealer shifting from a traditional office setting, an investment advisor looking to virtually meet with a client, or a bank conducting loan interviews over video and messenger, virtual meetings and communications have become the most viable option.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) requires financial firms that intend to communicate through a text messaging app or chat service to first ensure that they can retain records of those communications, as required by SEA Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4 and FINRA Rule 4511. Moreover, FINRA recently released COVID-19 guidance, and it expects firms to maintain monitoring requirements of their employees who are working from home.
Regardless of where work happens, professional electronic communications continue to be reliably archived for monitoring and financial services compliance.
The good news is, there are solutions that work together so financial firms can implement popular messaging solutions and stay compliant, and the Zoom + Smarsh integration is one example.
Smarsh integrates with Zoom to capture and archive chat messages and files that are sent through chat. This enables firms to communicate using Zoom and be confident they are meeting FINRA compliance requirements—a win-win in a remote working reality.
The Zoom + Smarsh integration helps organizations stay compliant via:
“For businesses like ours, the guidance is clear,” said Danielle Nolan, VP of Marketing at Sentinel Benefits & Financial Group, an employee benefit consulting and administration firm. “We need to be able to retain our communications to meet our regulatory obligations. Zoom helps our remote workforce communicate and collaborate, and Smarsh provides the solution for records retention and oversight. The combination gives us the best of both worlds.”
Some additional advice for organizations that need to maintain electronic communications compliance in this work-from-home environment:
Learn more about how Smarsh’s Zoom integration can help your organization maintain financial services compliance while employees work from home. To learn more about integrating Zoom with your other business-critical applications, visit the Zoom App Marketplace.
Marianna Shafir is a regulatory advisor for Smarsh.
More Resources:
To Zoom or Not to Zoom: Addressing a Crucial Cybersecurity Question
K1 Combines Actiance and Smarsh to Create Enterprise Information Archiving Leader
Leading an Organization Through the Uncertainty of COVID-19: Part 2
Leading an Organization Through the Uncertainty of COVID-19: Part 3