Overview

Every day, audits, legal proceedings and information requests happen to firms of all sizes. When these situations arise, customers can count on Global Relay for timely, knowledgeable help and guidance.

Experienced, Professional Team

Global Relay has dedicated, in-house Teams of experienced professionals whose sole purpose is to assist your firm with audits and legal discovery requests. The Audit and eDiscovery and Legal Teams have the depth of expertise and knowledge required to accommodate the needs of any type of firm in these situations — including banks, broker dealers, investment advisers, hedge funds, private equity firms, public companies and many more. Every day, Global Relay's Teams help customers with a wide variety of regulatory actions, discovery requests and other legal and compliance matters.

Audit & eDiscovery Team

Our Audit & eDiscovery Team helps customers search, filter and extract their archived message data. We do this on behalf of customers, directly in response to subpoena and court orders or as FINRA's appointed Third Party Downloader. Customers come to Global Relay for assistance with:

• Audits
• Regulatory examinations
• eDiscovery requests
• Information requests
• Litigation
• Anti-money laundering (AML) compliance
• HR matters

Solutions Designed for Audits and eDiscovery

Global Relay Archive is an efficient online tool for collaboration, case management and responding to data requests. It provides advanced search tools and functionality for culling, filtering and classifying data, which can then be either viewed online by auditors, regulatory authorities or legal counsel, or extracted to a variety of formats.

Global Relay's Audit and eDiscovery Team helps customers leverage this technology. We provide guidance, demonstrations and best practices advice for customers dealing with all types of audits and legal discovery requests.

Security and Confidentiality

Our Team understands the sensitive and confidential nature of audits and legal proceedings. The security and privacy of customers' data is our number one priority. Global Relay always ensures that proper due diligence is undertaken and that security processes are observed before responding to any lawful access or data requests.

International Jurisdictions

In cooperation with our in-house legal staff, Global Relay's Audit and eDiscovery Team also have strong experience in dealing with cross-border issues. We work with US and foreign professionals within the various local jurisdictions and regulatory compliance regimes to ensure all legal requirements and demands are efficiently responded to and AML controls are observed.

Guiding Customers Through the Wilderness

Global Relay understands the uncertainty and stress that audits and legal actions can bring. Our goal is to give you timely service, guidance and information to help you successfully navigate the intricacies of these situations — making the process as painless as possible. Over the course of more than 12 years of operations, Global Relay has assisted customers with more than 1000 audits and legal discovery requests. Let us put our Team's experience to work for you.

Services during Litigation and eDiscovery

Global Relay is available to assist with legal proceedings that require access to specific segments of a customer's data. The Audit and eDiscovery Team are experts at searching and extracting archived data according to precise date ranges, custodians or subject matter.

No matter how complex or detailed a legal information request may be, our Team can demonstrate the archive search process or perform the searches on the customer's behalf. We advise customers and their lawyers on best practices in working with archived messages during legal actions.

When the time comes to provide data to outside legal counsel, Global Relay can facilitate the creation of specific message archive login and password to grant attorneys access only to limited subsets of a customer's data. All audit trails and metadata are preserved, allowing customers to see which messages opposing legal counsel have viewed. This mitigates the risks associated with simply handing over large volumes of data to counterparties. Global Relay Archive can accommodate attorney-client privileged data and assure the privacy of these messages.

In addition to the Audit and eDiscovery Team, Global Relay also provides customers with the expertise of our dedicated in-house Legal Team, which is able to further assist customers during litigation and other legal proceedings.

Services During Audit

Global Relay's Team has in-depth knowledge and experience with the highly-varied audit procedures of regulatory bodies including:

• SEC
• FINRA
• IIROC (Canada)
• FSA (United Kingdom)

The Team enjoys good working relationships with these organizations and is well versed in the requirements, policies, and compliance procedures of each one.

When a customer comes to Global Relay for assistance with an audit, examination or compliance review, the Audit and eDiscovery Team is able to:

• Determine the nature of the request and what specific data the customer is required to produce
• Consult with the customer about what to expect during the process
• Advise on best practices for how to search the message archive and organize data
• Perform specific data searches on the customer's behalf
• Walk the customer through the process of extracting a PST file from the message archive
• Create a customized auditor-only login and password to allow access only to specific archived messages

Global Relay's goal is to make the regulatory compliance process as smooth and straightforward as possible for our customers.

Legal Team

Global Relay's Legal Team provides guidance and support to our customers so they can prepare for, meet and respond to various legal and compliance requirements they are subject to. The Legal Team monitors privacy compliance requirements and establishes proactive data protection and retention policies best practices. They also feed compliance requirements to our development teams to ensure Global Relay Archive and other Global Relay services meet evolving laws, rules and regulations worldwide.

Global Relay's Legal Team also has extensive experience in dealing with cross-border issues. We collaborate with US and foreign counterparts within the various judicial and regulatory compliance regimes to help customers address and respond to regulatory and legal requirements, demands and AML controls.

Third Party Downloader

Firms must appoint an independent third party downloader to access the organization's electronic records, if the firm is unable or unwilling to do so. (SEC 17a-4). Global Relay's 'Third Party Downloader' process is designed to protect all parties – the customer & FINRA. Global Relay's Legal Team will oversee the entire process to ensure prompt and accurate filing of all required documents including:

• SEC Rule 17a-4(f)(2) Documentation
• Electronic Storage Media Notification Letter
• Legal Direction and Authorization for Third Party Downloader
• Third Party Downloader Undertaking Letter
• Representation Letter attesting to Electronic Storage Media Compliance
  • A - WORM Storage Media
  • B - Message Write Quality & Accuracy Verification
  • C - Message Serialization of Original & Duplicates
  • D - Index & Record Downloading.