Overcoming Instant Messaging Regulation Challenges
Instant messaging is recognized as one of the most superb ways of enhancing business communications. It has earned this attribute because of its immediacy and ability to deliver the most recent information; something that neither email nor the most trusted phones can deliver. Consequently, it is becoming more and more crucial tool when critical business communication is concerned. It is for these reasons that instant messaging has become subject to similar regulation as well as compliance guidelines like email. For instance, in many sectors, there is a regulation demanding that instant messages be archived together with the firm’s email. This means that businesses must seek companies that offer archiving solutions to help them ensure instant messaging compliance as far as this and many other issues are concerned.
In December 2013, there was news that several large banks were contemplating putting restrictions or entirely banning the utilization of instant messaging as well as chat rooms on the height of rigging scandals. As a result, companies offering instant messaging solutions such as Bloomberg LP took the initiative to guarantee easier monitoring for their clients. Since then, rules and regulations governing this form of communication have increased tremendously these past days.
Unfortunately, the increased scrutiny by regulatory agencies on electronic messages is increasingly creating a challenge for businesses in many industries and more specifically among the participants in financial markets. This is because they need to remain consistently ahead of regulators as well as monitor instant messaging at scale. For example, subscribers of Bloomberg LP usually send 15 million instant messages and two hundred million emails on a daily basis via Bloomberg professionals. You may not specifically wish to receive the services of this company, but it is advisable to look for a company whose services will adequately help you ensure instant messaging compliance even as compliance requirements continue to toughen up.
According to the experts, red flags in instant messaging and complianceare mostly observed because of the widespread utilization of consumer IM client. This includes the use of AOL instant messenger, Yahoo Instant Messenger and Microsoft MSN Messenger. Most use of such instant messaging is not formally authorized, recorded and managed. The concern that IT managers have is the absence of management and control. Nevertheless, some of the primary compliance issues in instant messaging include record retention, supervision and protection of customer details. For many firms, complying with such requirement may prove a little bit difficult, especially when time and other resources are involved. The secret to ensure compliance is seeking instant messaging solutions such as implementation of appropriate software.