Guidelines For Electronic Records - Email & Message Archiving & Compliance Software

Regulation 17 CFR 1.31

Following the financial crisis of 2007 there were calls for widespread changes in the regulatory system, which would bring accountability and transparency to the financial markets. As a result, in 2010 Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Dodd-Frank amended the Commodity Exchange Act to implement an in-depth regulatory framework for swaps and security-based swaps. A key area of the Commodities Exchange ACT (CEA) is 17 CFR 1.31 which establishes record keeping requirements for market participants and states “All books and records required to be kept by the Act or by these regulations shall be kept for a period of five years from the date thereof and shall be readily accessible during the first 2 years of the 5-year period.” Furthermore, in regards to Over the Counter Swaps record retention, rule 17 CFR 45.2(c) states “All records required to be kept pursuant to this section shall be retained with respect to each swap throughout the life of the swap and for a period of at least five years following the final termination of the swap.”

Record Keeping Highlights of 17 CFR 1.31

If you are an institution that is required to comply with the existing regulations of 17 CFR 1.31, then you must remember that:

ALL BOOKS AND RECORDS

Required to be kept by the Act or by these regulations shall be kept for a period of five years from the date, thereof and shall be readily accessible during the first 2 years of the 5-year period

DATA

Must be stored in a digital storage medium that exclusively stores records in a non-rewritable, non-erasable format such as WORM, a Write-Once-Read-Many format.

THE RECORDS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Automatically verifies the accuracy and quality of the storage media recording process to ensure records are not corrupted.

THE ORIGINAL RECORD

Is serialized, duplicated across storage media as an added layer of security, and date-time stamped.

RECORDS

Can be downloaded upon request.

THE INDEXES

Of the records must be available at all times to provide to regulators at the persons required to keep such records expense.

STORE

A duplicate of the original record, in an acceptable medium (such as WORM) at a location that is separate from the original record.

REPRESENTATIVES

Of the Commission or the Department of Justice can immediate download indexes and records upon request.

RECORDS

Both the original and duplicate records must be organized and maintained with an accurate index of all information.

ORIGINAL AND DUPLICATED RECORDS

must be indexed and preserved for the time period required.

RECORDS

Need to be preserved in an easy-to-read format.

A Key Takeaway of 17 CFR 1.31

17 CFR 1.31 has defined the term “electronic storage media” as any digital storage medium or system that preserves the records exclusively in an unalterable non-rewritable, non-erasable format, such as WORM.

Ready to Plan an Archiving Strategy to Achieve Compliance with CFTC Regulations?

Archiving for CFTC recordkeeping obligations doesn’t have to be complicated with the right compliant archiving system. Patrina is a Third Party Download Provider (D3P) for financial institutions needing to satisfy record keeping obligations. Reach out to the data experts at Patrina for a free consultation to discuss your companies specific archiving challenges, record keeping requirements and business goals.

For More Information about CFTC 17 CFR 1.31

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