Cordium, a provider of compliance consulting and software solutions to the financial services industry, has launched a new electronic communications review service.
As technology advances and communication channels become the new standard, electronic communication oversight and document retention has become broader and more closely scrutinised. It is now necessary for both RIAs and Broker Dealers to monitor emails, instant messages, and other means of office communication in order to adhere to numerous regulatory requirements and stay consistent with a culture of compliance. Cordium’s electronic communications review service offers a streamlined solution for investment firms.
The new service offers a solution to monitor a firm’s electronic communications more closely and effectively. The review process will be tailored and will include:
• An independent and confidential assessment without bias or complication of internal employee relationships.
• Specific search parameters unique to the regulatory risk profile of the organisation.
• Documentation and evidence review for records in the event of an audit.
• A team of consultants that are trained not only to identify risks and potential issues but also to maintain confidentiality surrounding findings.
Cordium’s compliance consulting team has historically offered electronic communications reviews to its clients as part of its broader compliance consulting program. Thanks to surging demand from the asset management industry, however, this is the first time that the service will exist as its own stand-alone offering. The retention of electronic records and the monitoring of such items is a requirement under the SEC and FINRA and affects Registered Investment Advisers as well as Broker Dealers.
“Even as the volume of email continues to grow, regulators have made it clear that they will continue to pay close attention to all forms of electronic communications involving internal and external parties,” says Bill Mulligan, CEO of Cordium US and Cordium Software.
“We realise that compliance officers have limited time and resources to deal with this huge responsibility, and we are looking forward to making our vast expertise and experience in this area available to a wider client base as part of a stand-alone service offering.”
Cordium’s approach is to have client-specific teams in place dedicated to reviewing communications. The process will be customised and tailored searches will be applied based on specific firm risks to ensure focus on issues that may be uncovered in that email review. This review will also include a scrub of chat services that are approved by the specific company as that is where more candid communications between employees and people outside of the firm may occur.
