SITEQUEST COMPLIANCE: HELPING TO PREVENT FINES

In December, 2016 a firm in the Midwest was fined $12,500 from FINRA.

FINRA found that the firm failed to provide evidence an adequate review of disclosed outside business activities for its registered representatives in outside business activity questionnaires submitted by the registered representatives. The findings also stated that the firm’s WSPs stated that the firm would review firm and registered representative websites monthly, and that the review will be evidenced in the firm’s Supervisory Journal. During the course of a three-month review period, the firm’s Supervisory Journals failed to contain documentation of any review of firm or registered representative websites.

​Have you heard of SQWatcher? It stands for SiteQuest Watcher. SQWatcher automatically scans, monitors, and archived the websites ​that you are required to supervise. Unlike other archival systems that may only take a screenshot to show you what the site “looked like” in the past, SQWatcher collects and documents the actual HTML code for every page on your clients’ website(s). This provides you the ability to not only view the page in question, but also browse the rest of the site as it appeared in the past as part of your review process.

Do you have difficulties monitoring your representative’s outside business activities? Eagle Eye is a first of its kind application that is designed specifically to help the financial industry easily and effectively supervise the web. Aiding in your ability to find and document outside business activities. This time-saving solution automatically searches, documents, and reports on your web supervision responsibilities so you have everything you need to find and address issues before they are brought to your attention by a regulator.

Eagle Eye and SQWatcher working together are a force multiplier in your supervisory scheme. The cost of these applications are just a fraction of the cost a fine. ​

The average FINRA fine handed out in 2016 was $437,466.

Contact us today for your personalized demo so that we can demonstrate how these programs will benefit your firm.