Upcoming New FINRA Regulations… Are You Ready?

Amendments to broker-dealer books and records requirements under FINRA 4511 and 4512, take effect December 5, 2011. The new rules require member firms to make and preserve certain books and records to show their compliance with securities laws, rules and regulations. These requirements will undoubtedly impact ongoing records management and retention processes for broker-dealers, as well as impact future FINRA audits and legal discovery requests.

Planning for FINRA Compliance
With the effective date only a few months away, broker-dealers will need to be prepared to show updated policies and procedures with supporting systems to be ready for their 2012 FINRA audit. Compliance officers should ask:

• Do we have the systems capabilities in place to identify, track and preserve the required records?
• Is now a good time to perform a holistic data assessment review of the information and records your firm currently has stored across all data repositories, content management systems and archives?
• Are you able to implement defensible data deletion policies as prescribed by the new FINRA requirements?
  Can your current data storage and archiving capabilities withstand the volumes for day-to-day reporting and historical archiving? If not, how can you strategically clean up your data storage?
• Will new technologies be needed to assist, and what does the implementation timetable look like to be in compliance by December?

Meeting FINRA Requirements with StoredIQ
StoredIQ’s Information Governance solution provides broker-dealers with a comprehensive, secure and efficient approach to meeting their FINRA information governance needs. With StoredIQ, companies can manage risk and contain costs by leveraging automated compliance and governance policies.  The result is an efficient and cost-effective answer for today’s highly regulated business world.

By implementing StoredIQ now and planning accordingly, broker-dealers can be in compliance by the December 5th FINRA implementation date and ready for a 2012 FINRA audit examination.

To learn more, download the StoredIQ FINRA Solution Sheet or contact us for more information.

Madison Chooses StoredIQ to Manage eDiscovery In-House

Madison Capital Management, LLC (“Madison”), an alternative investment management firm with offices in the US and Europe has deployed StoredIQ’s Intelligent Information Management Platform to gain actionable intelligence from its rapidly expanding electronic data – allowing legal and IT teams to work in tandem to enhance eDiscovery strategies, meet compliance mandates and reduce risk and cost.

We wanted to better understand what data we have, where it resides and determine how we can better manage our information across the enterprise and do so in a proactive manner. With StoredIQ we are able to make intelligent decisions about the state of our data based on corporate policies and legal discovery requirements. – Tony Balding, vice president, software solutions at Madison

From a GC’s perspective, we needed a solution that allowed me to work closely with the IT department, analyze the data to determine the merits of a dispute quickly, understand related review cost and provide a defensible audit trail. StoredIQ exceeded that expectation with their unique capabilities, such as analyzing data where it natively resides, the user-friendly legal and IT workflow, and the scoreboard that keeps track of review costs as data is identified, preserved and collected. – Judy Michael, assistant vice president, legal, asset and risk management at Madison

Market-leading companies use StoredIQ to respond rapidly and efficiently to legal matters, litigation, and investigations. Utilizing StoredIQ, corporate legal teams can locate, analyze and act upon unstructured electronically stored information much more comprehensively and efficiently. As a result, companies can better manage their legal risk and reduce expenses, while formulating superior legal strategies. With StoredIQ, companies:

• Quickly locate matter-relevant electronic documents with advanced search technology
• Analyze electronic documents in-place with detailed data topology maps, advanced analytics, and precise data explorers
• Preserve and collect data to a secure legal hold repository, preserving all metadata and business context
• Perform first-pass reviews on documents before exporting data downstream
• Act on and manage potentially relevant data in a legally defensible manner with audit trails and a robust chain of custody

StoredIQ’s award-winning solution streamlines eDiscovery processes for legal and IT, allows for early case analysis “in the Wild,” and provides complete cost predictability.

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.