Rules and Regulations

 

FINRA Sanctions & Fines…


FINRA fined Barclay's $3.75 million for failing to retain important archives in WORM (non-erasable) storage format.

Securities regulators require broker-dealer firms to archive and review specific company information, including company emails and their publicly available Websites.

In reviewing the 2013 Sutherland FINRA Sanctions Survey, enforcement actions related to record keeping and electronic communications rose significantly - by 132% over the prior year.


 

 



 

Securities Rules Are Clear, Corporate Websites Must Be Archived


FINRA considers a financial firm‘s Website to be an advertisement, and therefore subject to the same regulations as it would with any advertisement.


 

 



 

Firms must fully preserve and archive their public Websites.


SEC Rule 17a-4 & SEC Interpretive Releases:
Electronic Storage of Broker-Dealer Records & Guidance on the Use of Electronic Storage

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has published its views on the use of electronic storage and record retention for U.S. broker-dealers. In these releases, the SEC permits broker-dealers to store required records in an electronic format. Also detailed in these releases, the SEC outlines the process in which broker-dealers should store, index, and access their archived information.

In SEC Rule 17a-4 and subsequent related Interpretive Releases, The SEC requires that these archived records be
immutable
, or stored in a non-rewritable and non-erasable format,
WORM
(Write-Only Read-Many) storage device.

The archives must be readily accessible and stored to duplicate storage media devices. It must be serialized, and provide a searchable index.


 

 



 

In summary, SEC Rule 17a-4 requires archived data, which includes company Websites, be archived: