US financial regulators NASD and Nyse Regulation have released a set of proposed guidelines for the management and supervision of electronic communications, both inside an organisation and externally.The regulators are inviting comments from the financial services industry on the new guidelines, which will be introduced to help firms establish systems for the review and supervision of electronic communications including e-mail.
The paper calls on firms to establish clear policies and procedures for the general use and supervision of electronic communications, which should be updated to include new technologies - such as Web blogs and podcasting - as they emerge.
The guidelines also cover the use of Internet-based e-mail platforms by employees, as well as third party communications systems such as those operated by Reuters and Bloomberg, which should be supervised and monitored. However, the proposals suggest that firms block employee access to online message boards, which can be used to communicate business matters.
Firms should also ban the use of employees' own electronic devices - such as mobile phones - for business purposes unless they are able to supervise and retain the communications, says the document.
Comments on the guidelines should be received by 13 July 13 2007.
Read the proposed guidance here:
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