Cordium, a global provider of compliance consulting and software solutions to the financial services industry, has launched a new electronic communications review service, offering a streamlined solution for investment firms.

Cordium’s compliance consulting team has historically offered electronic communications reviews to its clients as part of its broader compliance consulting program. Thanks to surging demand from the asset management industry, however, this is the first time that the service will exist as its own standalone offering. The retention of electronic records and the monitoring of such items is a requirement under the Securities and Exchange Comission and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and affects registered investment advisers (RIAs), as well as broker dealers.

The new service offers a solution to monitor a firm’s electronic communications more closely and effectively. The review process will be tailored and will include:

An independent and confidential assessment without bias or complication of internal employee relationships;

Specific search parameters unique to the regulatory risk profile of the organization;

Documentation and evidence review for records in the event of an audit; and

A team of consultants that are trained not only to identify risks and potential issues, but also to maintain confidentiality surrounding findings.

“Even as the volume of e-mail continues to grow, regulators have made it clear that they will continue to pay close attention to all forms of electronic communications involving internal and external parties,” said Bill Mulligan, CEO of Cordium U.S. and Cordium Software. “We realize that compliance officers have limited time and resources to deal with this huge responsibility.”

Cordium’s approach is to have client-specific teams in place dedicated to reviewing communications. The process will be customized and tailored searches will be applied based on specific firm risks to ensure focus on issues that may be uncovered in that e-mail review. This review will also include a scrub of chat services that are approved by the specific company as that is where more candid communications between employees and people outside of the firm may occur.

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