Does FINRA require broker-dealers to capture text messages and WhatsApp chats as business records?

The Short Answer

Yes. Under longstanding U.S. securities recordkeeping rules, broker-dealers must preserve business-related communications regardless of the technology used to send them. If a registered person uses text messaging or a platform such as WhatsApp to conduct firm business, those messages are business records and must be captured and retained.

The principle is content over channel: what matters is whether the communication relates to the firm’s business, not the app or device it lives on. A business message does not stop being a record because it was sent on a personal phone or an encrypted chat app.

Why This Applies to Texts and WhatsApp

Securities recordkeeping rules require firms to retain communications relating to their business and to make them available to regulators on request. Two long-standing obligations drive this:

• Capture and retention. Business communications must be preserved in a complete, retrievable form for the required retention period.
• Supervision. Firms must reasonably supervise the communications their associated persons send and receive.

Mobile messaging and “ephemeral” or off-channel apps create a well-known compliance gap. If a firm cannot capture a channel, regulators generally expect the firm to prohibit its use for business rather than allow uncaptured communications. In recent years, U.S. securities regulators have brought significant enforcement actions and imposed large penalties specifically for “off-channel” communications that firms failed to preserve.

What Firms Typically Do

• Adopt clear written policies stating which channels are approved for business use.
• Deploy tools that archive approved messaging channels in a tamper-evident, searchable form.
• Train staff that personal-device business texts are still records, and supervise for off-channel use.
• Apply consistent retention periods and legal-hold processes to messaging just as they would to email.

Bottom Line

Text messages and WhatsApp chats about firm business are records. The format is new; the recordkeeping principle is not. The same capture, retention, and supervision duties that apply to email apply to mobile and chat platforms.

For broader recordkeeping fundamentals, see the compliance standards topic hub.