Finra News & Articles

In my last post, Social Business: Compliant Communities as a Strategic Differentiator, I talked about how the relationship of compliance to communities (and all social business activities as well) is undergoing an important shift. From being a roadblock initially, to becoming a challenge that simply made going social more difficult for organizations, compliance today presents a distinctive opportunity for organizations to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Actiance has been busy regulating social conversations taking place across social media. From LinkedIn to Facebook, it  enables the automatic discovery of personal and corporate accounts all in an effort to monitor and archive content. This week, Actiance introduced Socialite Engage, a new platform designed to empower content sharing, customer engagement and impact analytics.

At FINRA's annual conference this week, Smarsh, a managed service vendor in secure, innovative and reliable email archiving and compliance solutions, released a report that reaffirms what we know about the compliance industry: It has issues.

A year ago FINRA, the regulator that oversees brokers and other financial advisors, released guidelines for social media usage. Since then, financial advisors have carefully tip-toed into the social media landscape, thanks to financial networking sites like LinkedFA.com and Smarsh.

We recently introduced you to Smarsh, an organization that provides hosted solutions for archiving electronic communications, including various social media platforms. This week Smarsh and LIMRA formed a strategic partnership designed to help its members meet a variety of needs associated with electronic message archiving and compliance.

As more and more financial advisers wade into social media, the seas are still uncharted. There are still risks associated with combining the financial and social media industries.

Though many businesses are still resistant to engage via social media platforms, research has shown that if done correctly, the results can be beneficial.

The growing use of social networks has received a considerable amount of attention this week from companies looking to mitigate the risk associated with the information that appears in them. There are also further moves in Washington to protect personal information.

A few weeks ago we mentioned linkedFA, a new tool designed to provide financial advisors the convenience of social networking with investors, but with the compliance that satisfies the financial industry. Recently we spoke with linkedFA’s CEO Brian F. Byrne to learn more about the first social networking site built specifically for financial advisors and their clients.

Companies have been contemplating compliance and governance issues for decades. But it’s only recently that they’ve been tackling the challenge that social media brings to corporate governance, risk and compliance. This week we examine a few of the elements impacting the industry.

Wasn’t it just last week that we were pondering the sustainability of GRC as an acronym? Have no fear; the world of GRC still spins. This week: financial advisers tackle social media, how to comply with multiple regulations and security compliance predictions for 2010.

As we inch closer to 2010, resolutions and predictions for the New Year are not uncommon. Many companies are addressing hot topics with webinars or at conferences. Even the legal industry and the companies that serve them are making lists. Let’s take a look.