Industry Focus

MessageWatcher LLC.

E-Mail & Instant Messaging Compliance :

E-mail and instant messages are now the communication of choice between employees and with many corporate customers. Corporate IT managers and compliance officers are becoming aware of the huge risk of fines, penalties, and litigation related to e-mail and instant messaging.

Compliance Solutions:

  • Broker-Dealers
  • Registered Investment Advisers
  • Healthcare
  • Education

E-Mail & IM Compliance (Archival & Surveillance) Highlights :

  • Surveillance of external & internal e-mail and instant messages
  • Automatic scanning using open and definable word Lexicon
  • Open and definable rule sets
  • Administrative workflow capability
  • Scan and view attachments
  • Secure multi-branch review
  • Flexible reporting options
  • Audit trails provide comprehensive activity logs
  • Pre or post review definable by group, user, direction or keyword for e-mail
  • Routing of flagged messages based on word category
  • Disclaimers automatically inserted based on content
  • Sticky note capability
  • Surveillance of multiple languages
  • Scans phrases
  • Recognizes words that are phonetically similar to keywords
  • Definable exclusions based on to, from, subject or content
The SEC mandates all regulated financial services firms monitor and archive instant messaging, e-mail & attachments
  • $8.25 million in fines were levied against Smith Barney, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and U.S. Bancorp Piper for not producing emails when requested by regulators.
  • Millions of daily e-mail and instant messages sent to and from financial services firms have created a new management challenge in controlling content and mitigating risk
  • Flexibility, open and definable systems are now required for managing e-mail and instant messaging at most businesses, even at small firms
  • The Sarbanes-Oxley Act increases the need for companies to retain files, including e-mail

Why compliance?

Corporate IT managers and compliance officers are becoming aware of the huge risk of fines, penalties, and litigation related to e-mail and instant messaging.

In August 2004 the following firms were charged with violations including improper email archiving:
  • Needham & Co. $700,000
  • Morgan Keegan $875,000
  • SG Cowen $125,000
  • Friedman Billings $125,000
  • Prudential Equity $325,000
  • Adams Harkness $525,000
  • Janney Montgomery Scott $825,000
* Source: Registered Rep, SEC Fines Seven More Broker/Dealers, By Will Leitch, Aug 26, 2004.

Compliance Information

MessageWatcher helps you comply with the various regulations by offering both in-house and hosted technology solutions.

MAJOR COMPLIANCE STANDARDS, LAWS & REGULATIONS:
PROVIDING YOU WITH THE TOOLS TO:
    Mitigate Risk
  • Eliminate the risk of fines related to the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
  • Avoid lawsuits related to harassment, discrimination, and violence.
  • Prevent theft of intellectual propert.
  • Deter employees from violating company policies.
    Comply with Industry and Governmental Regulations
  • Sarbanes-Oxley
  • SEC 17a-4 and NASD 3010
  • HIPAA
  • Gramm Leach Bliley
    Increase Productivity
  • Automate compliance activities to reduce labor resources needed.
  • Easy-to-use and powerful applications allow policy violations to be detected and dealt with quickly.
  • Web based interfaces allow compliance activities 24x7 from anywhere.
    Control Costs
  • Our archiving products use single instance storage and compression to minimize the costs associated with storage hardware and software.
  • Legal discovery costs are greatly reduced with our archiving solutions.
    Help Maintain Business Continuity
  • Alternate DNS records
  • End user access to real-time e-mail traffic
  • Off-site and redundant copies of e-mail