Henderson Implements Social Media Surveillance

Henderson Global Investors has gone live with SunGard's Protegent solution for social media surveillance.

The software will allow the company, which has some £74.4 billion (approximately $120.3 billion) under management, to monitor the activities of its registered reps on LinkedIn. It also includes functionality for the surveillance of Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) require investment firms to monitor the social media usage of their employees. Tied in to SEC Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4, and NASD Rule 3110 regarding communications recording, discussion of securities and their recommendation through social networking can trigger liability for a firm. FINRA's Regulatory Notice 10-06 explains this in more detail.

"SunGard's Protegent Social Media Surveillance contains the LinkedIn monitoring, alerting and reporting capabilities we need today, with the ability to support additional social media sites and functions in the future," says Carolyn Cetera, compliance associate at Henderson Global Investors (North America). "It helps increase transparency and saves time by displaying what needs attention immediately, and its integration with LinkedIn takes us right to the page in question. Our marketing team also enjoys the fact that LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook posts and messages can be created and entered seamlessly from within Protegent to help ensure compliance and provide efficiencies."

Social networking has become an area of importance lately within the investment industry. This is not only due to compliance issues regarding advertising, advising and other areas, but also thanks to recent studies that show other potential applications of the sentiment data generated through social media platforms.