Just 15% of financial firms are monitoring WhatsApp at all, despite rising levels of fines for communication monitoring failings, according to a report from SteelEye.
In its report, which surveyed 170 senior compliance professionals, it found that just 9% of firms monitor Slack and 3% monitor Signal.
While communication monitoring was better for Microsoft Teams, just 40% of firms capture it, while only 25% of firms capture Zoom.
Despite capture levels being so low, 76% of financial services firms rank surveillance as one of their two investment priorities for the next 12 months, with 41% focusing on communication surveillance.
Fines for failing to monitor communication platforms are rising. Bank of America and Morgan Stanley have both been fined $200m by the Securities of Exchange Commission
SteelEye Americas president Brian Lynch said, “There remains a lot of work to be done by financial services firms to ensure they do not fall foul of regulatory action. This is a growing challenge for firms and it’s unlikely we’ll see it slow down any time soon, with new channels of communications emerging all the time.
“It’s encouraging to see firms prioritising communications surveillance and recognizing the role technology can play in solving this challenge. Technology and robust data are essential to ensuring future-proofed compliance processes and procedures, and to avoiding unwanted regulatory oversight and damaging fines.”
Another recent report from SteelEye found that nine in ten financial services firms have reported an increased compliance cost over the past five years, with 10% saying costs have doubled,
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