CCOs lack confidence in recordkeeping abilities

As laptops, smartphones and web-based platforms are used more often by employees to discuss work-related activity, chief compliance officers are struggling to capture these communications to meet their recordkeeping obligations.

Roughly half of respondents to the Smarsh 2012 Electronic Communications Compliance Survey said they have “no or minimal confidence” that business communications taking place on employees personal mobile devices and laptops are being captured and archived by the firm. 

While a large majority of respondents said communications taking place on corporate-issued devices were being archived, a majority of firms also said they allow employees to discuss business matters on their personal devices. 

Earlier this year the US Securities and Exchange Commission reminded private equity firms of their recordkeeping responsibilities as registered investment advisors. Firms must be able to provide inspectors a five year window into their business-related emails, instant messages and other internet or web-based communications.  

Website archives have been the second most-requested communication type during examinations, according to Smarsh, second only to emails. Most GPs have the ability to show inspectors archived emails, however only 35 percent of respondents to the Smarsh survey reported having an archiving and supervision system in place for websites.

Organisations that do not archive their website content fail to do so at their peril, Smarsh noted in an August white paper on the topic. “There are a variety of reasons that website archiving is an important best practice, including compliance with regulatory and e-discovery obligations, the ability to prove in court when statements were made on a website, competitive analysis, and maintenance of corporate memory.”