The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued Regulatory Notice 11-48 last month to request public comment on a proposed new rule requiring carrying/clearing organizations to maintain various records for FINRA, the SEC and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation.  If the new rule – proposed FINRA Rule 4516 (Readily Identifiable and Accessible Records) – is adopted by the SEC, it would provide additional justification for certain financial services companies to deploy automated archiving software such as Enterprise Vault to address the challenges of regulatory recordkeeping.

The purpose of proposed FINRA Rule 4516 is to protect investors in the event a clearing organization can no longer continue to operate due to financial or operational problems.  A clearing organization is an entity through which futures and other derivative transactions are cleared...