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We are continually reviewing the monthly disciplinary actions that are reported by FINRA. Almost monthly, we are finding rulings and fines that could have been prevented through the use of our Eagle Eye program. Eagle Eye has been around for several years helping financial firms with their general supervision of the web. One of our clients said, “That one of our previous hurdles was demonstrating to our regulators with documentation that we were conducting the appropriate monitoring. With Eagle Eye's audits reports, that are available directly from the system, we are able to document and show individual findings in an organized manner." In July of this year a brokerage firm received a $5,000 fine from FINRA (Full case details). It was discovered that the firm’s CEO/CCO never conducted its quarterly review of the registered representative’s outside business activity or evaluated any potential conflicts that may have arisen since the initial disclosure of its outside business activity, both of which were required by the firm’s written supervisory procedures. The firm did not have any knowledge of the outside business activates of their representatives As a supervisor, how are you reviewing your representative’s outside business activities? FINRA has provided this helpful form to help you gather this information directly from your employees, but what if your employees neglect to tell you about these OBAs? How do you find out about these activities on your own? That is where Eagle Eye can be part of the solution.
See for yourself how this program can work for you. 9/19/2016
PART TWO OF NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS MONTHContinually Making Sure Your Monitoring Records and Documentation are in Order
This is not a preparedness matter to take lightly. Just last November FINRA fined a Tier One Company $2.6 million for failures in required electronic records and email retention. Read the full report. The benefits of maintaining accurate, reliable and usable records can help to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your business. It will ensure your firm is able to access information when required and meet all accountability and compliance requirements. Below are some suggestions that are beneficial in establishing and making sure that an effective record keeping and documentation system is in order when you are monitoring your associates' web presence. Planning. Establish what processes are needed for monitoring records to be effectively maintained and how this will be achieved. Planning a monitoring process will help you maintain a record keeping system that works for your firm and provides clear expectations for supervisors and compliance officers. Consistency. To make it easier for compliance staff members to do their job, have information collected and stored in a consistent way within your firm's network; all staff should follow the same policies and procedures. Communication. Have all your staff made aware of, and ensure they understand, the FINRA general supervision requirements. Verify that all supervisors know and follow the record keeping policies and procedures established by your firm. By communicating expectations clearly, you will benefit from consistent record keeping standards. Modify. Don’t be afraid to modify your record keeping system if you find a more efficient way to achieve results. Regular reviews of your record keeping systems will keep them up-to-date and operating in a way that is beneficial to your firm. Responsibility. Know your responsibilities—what to record, how to maintain records and how long they should be kept. Having accurate and reliable records during an audit will allow you to easily confirm your firm’s compliance. Review. Encourage staff to provide feedback on how the monitoring record keeping system is working and how it could be improved. In doing this, you may gain valuable suggestions that will bring continuous improvement to your administrative records, improving the efficiencies of the practice. Embrace technology. Regularly investing in technology will help improve the efficiency of your general supervision monitoring requirements. Your staff will appreciate any efforts made to improve and automate the task of keeping records, giving them additional job satisfaction. Additionally, removing manual steps not only makes the record keeping process more efficient, it also makes the records uniform and reduces the risk of human error. Our clients have found that Eagle Eye’s automated reporting features saves them valuable time. With just a click, you will have everything you need including when a result was found, who reviewed it, comments that were made and time stamps on every action taken on the account. From a regulatory point of view, with Eagle Eye’s automated screenshots you will have the full story of what content looked like at the time of review, giving you everything you need to respond to a regulator. Supervising the web doesn’t have to be difficult! Let us show you how Eagle Eye is a more effective solution. Contact us today for a demo. In a world of ever growing automation and computer work, it's easy to find yourself staring at your computer screen (or screens) virtually all day long. While sometimes we feel that our brains might be fried from such activities, you're eyes also pay a heavy price in the form of eye strain.
Here are some helpful hints on how to avoid eye strain based upon a 20-20-20 rule.
It also helps to adjust your computer display settings. Adjusting the brightness, text size, and contrast of your display can help reduce eye strain and fatigue. You'll find that by doing so, your focus on your work will increase while your eye strain symptoms will start to decrease. Give your eyes a break and let Eagle Eye do the work for you. Eagle Eye is a leading-edge application that automates your processes for searching, documenting, reporting and ultimately supervising your associates’ web presence. Many of our clients have found that using Eagle Eye can reduce their workload by as much as 80%. See how Eagle Eye can help save you time from having to stare at your computer screen all day. Eagle Eye might not be able to pick your winning brackets for March Madness, but it will quickly and efficiently help you discover, review and mitigate compliance risks that exist online for your firm or associates.
At SiteQuest we’ve painstakingly designed a system with built-in intelligence that sifts through the web for you. These results are more accurate than what you'd find on a typical Google search. Allow Eagle Eye to search through the MADNESS of the web and start enjoying a system that automates your web supervision process from start to finish. See for yourself how this innovative application works! 2/11/2016
REASONS WHY OUR CUSTOMERS LOVE EAGLE EYE
Don’t just take our word for it. A compliance officer in the Midwest said this about Eagle Eye: The Eagle Eye Surveillance system has been a force multiplier in my firm’s supervisory scheme. This simple tool has transformed my internet surveillance sweep process from a time-consuming, multi-day enterprise where I view the same search results over and over to a simple process that can be completed in a couple of hours. Eagle Eye is simple to setup and affordable, allowing you to be up in running in a matter of days. Contact us to learn more about how Eagle Eye can solve your web supervisions problems today and prevent compliance and supervisory headaches in the future. We'd be happy to show you how Eagle Eye will work for you.
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About James CellaJames Cella is the President of a growing and innovative compliance technology provider called SiteQuest Technologies. James is a customer-centric individual and focuses on building and sustaining positive and lasting relationship with his clients and partners. James and his family are "super fans" of Utah Football and have attended nearly every home game since 2002. Go Utes! Archives
July 2019
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12/5/2016