A Finextra member 26 January, 2023, 19:10 0 likes

Once upon a time, when traders (for instance) were entering their trading floor, they had lockers and all comms devices had to be locked therein.  By the late 1990's, they'd become a joke.  All sorts of tools were used to illicitly chat, which, for instance, is a huge part about how the LIBOR scandal was able to happen.  Bloomberg terminal chat rooms and messaging was another method, though at some point, firms that cared about compliance started using B Vault to capture and analyze such comms.  But there has long been an attitude in the 'business' that cheating is possible and lucrative, you just have to find a communication method no one in compliance is paying attention to.  There is a drive to make as much money as possible and breaking rules, regs and laws is, in too many firms,the shortcut to doing so.

Having said that, SOME firms don't consistently review official system based comms the way they need to.  Too many senior managers don't want to put the effort in.

I hope MS manages to get this under control.  I'm not holding my breath, though.

Ketharaman Swaminathan - GTM360 Marketing Solutions - Pune 27 January, 2023, 10:08 0 likes

There are zillions of communication channels in today's world, ranging from the usual suspects like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram to arcane ones like "Click the purple pixel on so-and-so website" on the Dark Web that I don't envy the job of compliance folks responsible for tracking comms and regulators who are supposed to spot violations of channel rules in investment banks.

Ketharaman Swaminathan - GTM360 Marketing Solutions - Pune 27 January, 2023, 10:10 0 likes

Not to mention the setting of remote working. Despite telling employees to come to office for over a year, WFH is apparently still a thing in Goldman Sachs, etc.    

A Finextra member 27 January, 2023, 19:02 0 likes

Agreed.  But firms, when they welcome new employees, have an obligation to teach new employees the rules,and to periodically repeat that training.  They can and must limit what work devices or systems are used and monitor those.  These systems record, and may use rule sets to know what to report to management.  Now it's one thing to have personal discussions over employee owned phones or chat, but anything beyond that should be immediate grounds for firing - if communicating  with coworkers or clients, etc., it must be via an approved channel.  It is complicated, more so with WFH, where the employee should have a company phone of some sort or be using systems like Teams, Zoom, even the old Business Skype if still available.

I noted that if an employee just wants to spend a minute seeing how a coworker is, rules shouldn't apply, but if the call will include work, it must be recorded.  Same with text messaging.