Our unique strength is combining an extensive knowledge of legal and regulatory requirements, messaging platforms, collaboration technologies and archive products. Our dedicated focus is delivering software and solutions that enable clients to bridge technology and compliance.
For over 20 years, 17a-4 has provided enterprise software and compliance services to over 1,000 regulated institutions. With this depth of technical expertise and industry experience, our continued purpose is to serve clients by producing exceptional value through unmatched solutions and support.
Charles Weeden | Managing Partner
During the late 1990s, the Securities & Exchange Commission (“SEC”) debated how to handle such emerging email platforms as AOL, Hotmail, CompuServe and Groupwise. Was an email a written document and thus regulated by SEC Rule 17a-4? Or was it an analog to voice communications and exempt from the record retention requirements of Rule 17a-3 and other financial regulations?
We participated in these public discussions and when the SEC formally permitted broker-dealers to retain records electronically, (Interpretive Release 34-38245 https://www.sec.gov/rules/final/34-38245.txt), the digital transformation of financial services recordkeeping accelerated. 17a-4, LLC was incorporated to provide technology services and consulting to help Clients comply with these and other regulations.
Our Client approach emphasizes the value that archiving provides in addition to ‘check-the-box’ regulatory compliance. An archive empowers an institution with an effective facility to complete internal investigations, early-case assessments, eDiscovery productions, and content management. We have made these points in several articles including:
We focus on technologies and services that help our Clients do business while staying in compliance with regulations and business security and compliance polices. Our DataParser software is the leading independent third party data connector solution on the market.
Since 2001, we’ve provided D3P services and archive reviews and consulting for over 600 financial firms. We review records, backup methodologies, and archive configurations including Microsoft’s 365, Google Vault, AWS, Google Cloud Storage, and Microsoft’s Azure Blob storage. We provide guidance and industry best practices for Supervision, Retention and Disposition procedures.
As email retention cases and financial services industry ‘best practices’ often play a role in SEC, FINRA, and CFTC Administrative Proceedings, we have been retained in a number of cases by the Regulators to provide Expert Witness testimony. These cases include Pequot Capital Management and Galleon Management.
Since 2004, our DataParser software has been used by over 500 financial firms to bring data into archives for compliance. Starting with Bloomberg Terminal chats, we developed DataParser as a cost-effective solution to meet compliance requirements and simplify the process of eDiscovery review. Important to DataParser’s design is the ability to easily fit in existing environments so Clients can leverage in-house resources. DataParser Cloud, released in 2020, adds another option for easy deployment to quickly fill compliance gaps.
Our team has extensive subject matter expertise and professional experience with email, instant messaging, and enterprise collaboration platforms such as: Microsoft’s Teams, Salesforce’s Slack, Cisco’s Webex Teams, Zoom, Bloomberg, Symphony, Google Workspace and many other communication / collaboration platforms. We are often brought in by corporate legal teams and outside counsel to assist with the search, collection, and production of content from these and other platforms.
Though our roots are in the financial industry, we are increasingly providing compliance management solutions and regulatory compliance services to Clients operating in highly regulated industries such as healthcare, education, and government. Our clients operate in highly regulated industries across multiple regulatory regimes, and as a result are required to comply with hundreds of detailed recordkeeping rules that require “evidence of occurrence.”
We develop Software and Services to meet the needs of our clients. Our solutions empower regulated organizations to adopt the most innovative communication systems while meeting content retention and compliance obligations. Our D3P and Compliance services are used by more US Broker Dealers than any other firm.