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Get yourself Connected: Connectors to watch in 2024
Predictions for the year ahead
While the data in this report gives insight into the current state of communications capture and an overview of historical purchasing decision trends, these insights also provide a basis for predicting which Connectors could see a rise in demand through 2024.
While the direction of regulatory travel and emerging innovation in communications channels may drive demand in unforeseeable directions, our collected data, current industry trends, and the wider regulatory news cycle indicate the following will be the Connectors worth watching in the new year.
SMS/Text
While SMS/Text messages have not yet attracted the same attention in financial industry news headlines as services like WhatsApp, we have seen multiple regulatory actions for communications non-compliance taking place by text message over the last few years. With our data showing an increase of investment in SMS/Text Connectors rising from 15% of inquiries to 30% YoY, there is reason to believe this trend will continue, especially in the U.S. where SMS/Text is more commonplace.
Video and Zoom
While the prevailing regulatory focus has been on business communication chat channels that proliferated during the pandemic, another technology that became nearly ubiquitous during that time has so far escaped as much scrutiny: video calling. While our data set suggests there is currently a low demand for Zoom recording capture and archiving (3% of firms), those privy to regulator priorities are “concerned the SEC would expand recording requirements to Zoom calls, or similar forms of communication.” Compliance teams should assess their capture posture on video calls in readiness.
Websites and social
The SEC has already shown its teeth regarding enforcement around the Marketing Rule, imposing over $850,000 of related fines across nine firms in the first year alone. Regulators have been explicit in counseling firms not to use social platforms to capture and retain data, as it can be removed or lost when those platforms perform regular updates – therefore a compliant data connection solution for those platforms will be vital.
Similarly, the shifting regulatory tone around “non-financial misconduct” and expectations that firms consider non-business communication when gauging fitness and propriety for certain positions will require firms to capture social media channels.
LinkedIn – the next communications crisis?
With a considerable percentage of Broker-Dealers (47%) utilizing a LinkedIn connector to capture data, the platform is clearly a widespread means of communicating. Used for connecting with both existing contacts and potential future customers by financial industry professionals, and by brand pages to communicate with a wider audience, LinkedIn straddles a line between social media platform and direct business communications application that makes it both a vital tool and potential target for future regulatory scrutiny. With regulation like the SEC’s Marketing Rule and FCA’s Consumer Duty now in effect, and regulators beginning to consider “what comes after WhatsApp?,” there is a considerable chance LinkedIn may be the next platform to receive more regulatory scrutiny.
Ephemeral messaging
The rationale behind bad actors employing off-channel communications is to hide their non-compliance – and ephemeral messaging channels present an opportunity for their non-compliant messages to disappear. Recent examples of this in action include Katy Balls, political editor for The Spectator, discussing the operations of the U.K. government on BBC Radio 4:
More and more when you message a cabinet minister, or even actually any MP, you’ll see the thing saying ‘disappearing messages.’ And it’s quite funny to work out how concerned they are about speaking to you based on whether that is ‘disappearing messages after two weeks’ or sometimes ‘after 24 hours.’ And of course that would mean that in an inquiry, that function would mean that those messages weren’t there to be used.
With platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram offering functionality where messages disappear after being read, or a set time after being sent, the opportunities for non-compliant activity are obvious. A recent case where a former Goldman Sachs employee found to have committed insider trading also urged one of his contacts to use ephemeral messaging app Signal (among other channels) to avoid messages being traced. With more channels enabling users to send disappearing messages, an ephemeral message capture solution is fast becoming a compliance requirement.
Global Relay offers a broad range of Connectors, which span industry-essential trade, digital, collaboration, communication, social, email and voice channels. With Global Relay, you can connect communications data from the sources you need, directly into a compliant archive. If you need a bespoke Connector, we’ll build it – so you can capture everything.
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