Bank Failures and the Preservation of Records

Hi, I’m Ursula Talley, Vice President of Marketing for StoredIQ. This week I read that the number of banks that have failed in the US in 2009 has grown to 133, with possibly a greater number of banks forecasted to close in 2010. John Keefe with MoneyWatch.com recently discussed the forecasted failures and included several graphs depicting the problem. So what does this mean for information and records management in the banking industry?

When the FDIC intervenes and takes control of a failed bank, it negotiates the sale of bank assets and liabilities to a healthy, solvent bank.  Among the many criteria outlined in the contract between the FDIC and the assuming bank, Paragraph 6.3 pertains specifically to the preservation of records.

Paragraph 6.3: Preservation of Records

The Assuming Bank agrees that it will preserve and maintain for the joint benefit of the Receiver, the Corporation and the Assuming Bank, all Records of which it has custody for such period as either the Receiver or the Corporation in its discretion may require, until directed otherwise, in writing, by the Receiver or Corporation. The Assuming Bank shall have the primary responsibility to respond to subpoenas, discovery requests, and other similar official inquiries with respect to the Records of which it has custody.

Additional details from the FDIC contract require the assuming bank to preserve all electronic data and paper records for 10 years prior to the takeover and an additional 6 years following the takeover.

For the assuming bank, it is important to categorize, classify and retain all electronically stored information (ESI) from the assumed bank’s network servers, storage systems and personal computers while complying with federal and corporate governance mandates, and do so in a cost effective manner. Since the assuming bank is liable for any discovery requests, it is important to manage the data appropriately with downstream risk and cost in mind.

Recently, StoredIQ was used by a major financial organization to comply with FDIC paragraph 6.3. Through this project, StoredIQ indexed 60 terabytes of data, part of a 250 terabyte information governance project. StoredIQ’s intelligent eDiscovery and Information Management solution provides financial services firms with a comprehensive, secure and efficient approach to complying with FDIC Preservation of Records requirements and corporate governance needs. To learn more, download our FDIC industry solution brief, or contact us at info@storediq.com.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 4:00 pm and is filed under FDIC Paragraph 6.3, financial industry, information management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.