Global Relay Industry Insights: Compliant Communications 2024

How was the 2024 Industry Insights research produced?

Global Relay conducted an industry-wide survey over two months in 2024 to understand how financial services firms were managing business communications and responding to emerging compliance trends.

Respondents included Chief Compliance Officers, Chief Data Officers, Heads of Risk and Supervision, Heads of Surveillance, and Compliance Officers working across global financial organizations. Responses also represented industry groups including asset managers, broker-dealers, and investment banks.

The research examined recordkeeping, off-channel communications, surveillance, employee behavior, BYOD, social media, and the use of AI within compliance workflows.

What changed in communications compliance between 2023 and 2024?

The 2024 findings show firms gradually moving away from uncertainty around off-channel communications, although channel bans remained common.

Fewer firms had no plan for off-channel communications

In 2023, 25.6% of respondents said they did not have a clear plan for managing off-channel communications such as WhatsApp. In 2024, that fell to 7.8%.

At the same time, the proportion of respondents allowing all communication channels while monitoring them increased from
10.3% in 2023 to 17.4% in 2024.

WhatsApp bans declined, but remained widespread

In 2023, 59% of respondents had opted to ban WhatsApp and WeChat. In 2024, 43.5% of respondents said they continued to ban WhatsApp for business purposes.

The year-on-year movement suggests that more firms were exploring compliant capture and monitoring approaches, even though bans remained the most common response.

What were compliance teams most concerned about?

Employee behavior remained one of the most persistent communications compliance challenges.

In 2024, 65.2% of respondents said their biggest concern was getting staff to comply with communications rules, up from
61.5% in 2023.

The findings suggest that communications compliance is not only a technology problem. Policies, employee behavior, supervision, and the ability to capture the channels employees actually use all influence whether controls work in practice.

How were technology challenges changing?

The research identified two different trends in firms’ technology challenges.

The proportion of respondents struggling to capture and store communications data across all channels increased to 27% in 2024, from 23.1% in 2023.

However, the proportion reporting difficulty monitoring all communications channels fell sharply, from 53.8% in 2023 to 23.4% in 2024.

This suggests that surveillance capabilities may be improving while the underlying challenge of complete multi-channel data capture remains significant.

How were BYOD policies changing?

Bring-your-own-device policies became more common in 2024. The share of firms using BYOD increased from
51% in 2023 to 67% in 2024.

Regional approaches varied. The report found that 63.4% of North American respondents used a BYOD model while monitoring business-related communications, while only 11% of North American firms said they issued corporate devices to staff.

The findings underline the need for communications controls that account for both personal and corporate devices rather than assuming one device model will apply across every firm or jurisdiction.

Why was social media emerging as a compliance risk?

Social media became a significant area of concern for compliance teams in 2024, with 55.7% of survey respondents saying they considered it a compliance risk to their business.

The report identifies several ways firms were viewing that risk, including marketing and advertising obligations, recordkeeping, off-channel communications, and the need to archive or monitor approved social platforms.

The finding reflects a broader expansion of the communications compliance perimeter beyond email and traditional financial messaging channels.

How were firms approaching AI in compliance?

AI adoption showed a clear regional divide.

Overall, 42.6% of respondents said they expected to integrate AI into compliance workflows during 2024, while 57.4% did not.

Roughly 70% of EMEA-based and global respondents expressed an intention to integrate AI into compliance workflows over the following 12 months. Among North American respondents, the figure was 34.1%.

The report also emphasizes that AI effectiveness depends on the quality and structure of the underlying data. Complete, consistently formatted communications data provides a stronger foundation for surveillance, search, and more accurate AI-assisted analysis.

What does the 2024 benchmark tell compliance teams?

The 2024 survey points to a communications compliance environment moving from short-term responses toward more structured, technology-supported approaches.

Fewer firms lacked a plan for off-channel communications, more firms were monitoring permitted channels, and monitoring challenges were falling. At the same time, employee behavior, complete communications capture, BYOD, social media, and AI were creating new operational and governance questions.

Taken together, the findings show why communications compliance increasingly depends on aligning policy, employee behavior, channel capture, data governance, and surveillance rather than addressing each area separately.

Explore the full 2024 Industry Insights report

Read the full Global Relay Industry Insights: Compliant Communications 2024 report for detailed survey findings, regional comparisons, expert commentary, and analysis of off-channel communications, BYOD, social media, AI, surveillance, and emerging compliance risk.