ACA boosts compliance platform with e-comms upgrade

ACA Group has announced a significant upgrade to its eComms Technology Solutions suite, part of the ComplianceAlpha platform, designed to improve the efficiency and control of compliance professionals in the financial services industry.

The new enhancement introduces advanced archive capabilities that streamline the handling of electronic communications, a growing area of focus for regulatory bodies.

The move builds on ACA's earlier announcement in March, in which it revealed a new practice group dedicated to addressing the governance, risk and compliance concerns of wealth managers.

Now, ACA has unveiled next-generation archive functionality, which comes with a modernized user interface to enable rapid searches and a more intuitive user experience. Users can now extract and export data directly from the search interface, bypassing the need for third-party assistance and speeding up responses to regulatory inquiries. New features like random sampling further enhance compliance monitoring.

Peter Kenny, managing director and head of global surveillance strategy at ACA Group, highlighted the growing regulatory scrutiny around electronic communications.

“Robust electronic communications archiving is crucial as regulators intensify their focus on books and records compliance and digital communications governance,” he said in a statement.

The upgrade comes at a time when both the SEC and the CFTC continue to pursue enforcements related to books and records compliance. The campaigns, now in their fourth year, have already led to more than $3.28 billion in fines. Just last month, the SEC hit roughly two dozen firms with a combined $393 million in penalties over widespread failures relating to electronic communications.

In a poll of professionals covered by the 2024 Investment Management Compliance Testing Survey, 59 percent of respondents identified off-channel electronic communications surveillance as their top concern, displacing the SEC's marketing rule from the industry's list of regulatory housekeeping priorities.

ACA Group's CEO, Patrick Olson, noted the growing demand for solutions in this space.

"With the growing demand for electronic communications archiving solutions amid heightened regulatory scrutiny, our eComms Technology Solutions suite is tailored to meet these evolving needs,” Olson said.