Global Relay Data Insights: Compliant Communications 2023

How was the 2023 communications capture data produced?

Global Relay analyzed communications capture data from more than 10,000 regulated financial institutions, including banks, broker-dealers, fund managers, and other regulated entities.

The analysis used data from a subset of Global Relay customers using Connectors to understand which business communication channels firms were prioritizing for compliant capture and storage as recordkeeping requirements and communications behavior continued to evolve.

What did the 2023 data show about communications capture?

The 2023 dataset provides an early benchmark for how regulated firms were expanding communications capture beyond traditional email and financial messaging platforms.

• 89% of financial services firms were capturing and storing email communications
• 33% were capturing and storing LinkedIn communications
• 10% were capturing communications published on their own websites
• 3% were connecting Zoom video to their compliant archive
• Implementation of WhatsApp Connectors increased by more than 400% in the two years following high-profile regulatory enforcement for WhatsApp-related recordkeeping failures
• Implementation of Microsoft Teams Connectors increased by 229% during the year of theCOVID-19 pandemic

What trends were emerging in 2023?

The findings show firms broadening their compliance perimeter as business communications moved across collaboration platforms, social media, websites, mobile messaging, and video.

Traditional channels such as email, Instant Bloomberg, and Microsoft Teams remained important, but the data also indicated growing interest in capturing LinkedIn, X, WhatsApp, SMS, websites, and video communications. This suggested that communications compliance programs were beginning to reflect a more fragmented and multi-channel business environment.

Social media was becoming part of the recordkeeping perimeter

The level of LinkedIn and website capture showed that social and public-facing digital communications were already becoming part of firms’ recordkeeping strategies.

This created a wider compliance question around how marketing, customer communications, and employee activity on social platforms should be captured and governed.

Mobile messaging was becoming harder to ignore

The sharp increase in WhatsApp Connector implementation following regulatory enforcement illustrated how quickly channel priorities could change when firms identified a gap between employee communication behavior and existing recordkeeping controls.

Collaboration tools had become established business channels

The rapid growth of Microsoft Teams capture during the pandemic demonstrated how quickly a collaboration platform could move from an emerging workplace tool to an important part of the compliance record.

Why is the 2023 dataset still useful?

As an early benchmark in Global Relay’s communications capture reporting, the 2023 findings provide a useful historical baseline for understanding how regulated firms’ channel strategies have changed overtime.

Keeping the methodology and strongest findings available in HTML makes it easier to compare later Data Insights reports against this baseline and track how capture priorities evolve as new communications platforms, regulatory expectations, and business practices emerge.

Explore the full 2023 report

Read the full Global Relay Data Insights: Compliant Communications 2023 report for analysis of the most commonly captured channels across jurisdictions and financial sectors, the evolution of communications data over the preceding five years, and the trends shaping future communications capture requirements.