Why mess with a good thing? Sometimes we hit on something that works so well that it never changes – like Coca Cola. Unfortunately, most things are not Coke and need to evolve. Email-based archiving – particularly when applied to client engagement activities across social and texting – is one of those areas begging to be modernized.

To meet regulatory recordkeeping requirements and standards (i.e., SEC, FINRA, CFTC, FCA and others), firms have long relied on an email-based approach to take delivery of client communications into their archives. Email-based archiving (SFTP) is akin to sending a package – data is stripped down and organized to fit nicely in a box that can be sorted in a similar way with all the other packages. While the approach results in compliance with archiving mandates, it hampers compliance teams, rendering them less effective and efficient. What this approach lacks is context. Activities are delivered into the archive sometimes as they occur – most commonly with a delay – and are siloed by channel, forcing supervision to piece together conversations that are taking place across days, networks, and channels. This approach conjures up images of old police TV mysteries with cork boards and pinned pieces of yarn to connect suspects – it doesn’t reflect the technological progress we’ve made in other areas of financial services.

However, that is beginning to change. As more efficient, modern methods of data transfer have been introduced, some firms are re-examining how this data is being transferred to them. Archiving via API provides full context of digital communications and real time access. They have a thread based on a full view of the interactions between two contacts instead of the legacy structure imposed by an email-based configuration.

With API-led approaches, firms are gaining real-time access to communications in order to bring speed and efficiency to the archiving and review process.  We’ve made investments in Hearsay’s Compliance API to offer real-time access to a stream of activities that unlocks integrations with API-led platforms simplifying and modernizing recordkeeping, supervision, and discovery. Critically this offers Supervision teams a unified view of activities across channels to see a full, clear picture, so that the right activities are flagged and remediated.

All this to say that now is the time for firms to consider evaluating whether their archiving processes are as effective as they could be. An API archiving process doesn’t require a massive transformation of the existing setup – for example Hearsay’s open APIs allow our platform to integrate seamlessly with existing infrastructure bringing more value to your existing compliance foundation. And as you evaluate options, our team stands ready to lend our expertise.

Sometimes, change is a good thing.