The balancing act between security and convenience is anything but simple – especially in financial services. The security controls, regulations and standards established by governments and managing bodies such as the SEC and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission are complex but necessary for good reason. Without them, breaches like Equifax are an inevitability.
The damages from such breaches go well beyond monetary costs or regulatory penalties. In the financial services space, trust is the most valuable commodity – and all it takes is a single data breach to lose it all.
As new apps, platforms, devices and flexible working becomes organisational best practice, so too must security and behavioural change. This means decision-makers must take all the steps to support transformation and progress – without ever compromising security. Because neither alternative – restricting employee workflows or skirting compliance such as GDPR and Australia’s Data Breach Disclosure laws – are an option.
As one of Australia’s largest wealth management and corporate finance firm, Patersons Securities Limited is no stranger to this fact. With a history that dates back over a century, Patersons prides itself on its accountability, transparency, and expertise. Much of its reputation is tied to the fact that the company not only treats sensitive data with the utmost care, but is also capable of responding quickly and effectively to its clients’ needs.
One of the more significant challenges facing the firm in that regard was tied to its corporate finance team, which handles processes such as initial share offerings. While subject to even stricter regulatory guidelines than Patersons’ other lines of business, the corporate finance team’s work is also highly-collaborative. It needed to establish total control of and visibility into all of its data, but it also needed to ensure it did not obstruct its staff in doing so.
“We’ve got over 13 billion dollars under management and advisors at offices all over the country…we have to control our documentation,” explains Darren Michael, Chief Information Officer at Patersons Securities. “The research and other data that’s pooled together and sent out can only be distributed in a limited form to potential investors. We’re very prescriptive about who can be involved when working with market-sensitive data.”
Better security. Improved collaboration. Seamless secure file sharing across devices and operating systems. These requirements ultimately led Patersons Securities to BlackBerry® Workspaces, a file security and collaboration solution that provides an intuitive means of controlling and securing files, regardless of where they end up.
“BlackBerry Workspaces had actually been on our firm’s radar for quite some time,” says Michael. “When the issue of compliant collaboration came up, my team suggested taking a closer look at the platform, and we all agreed it seemed like the right solution. We wanted a better way of managing the corporate action process, especially how documents were distributed.”
To learn more about how Patersons Securities leveraged BlackBerry Workspaces for their business read the full case study here.
Visit us online to take a closer look at BlackBerry Workspaces, or read up on some of BlackBerry’s other wins in the financial services sector, including our partnership with Bank BRI, DSS, and security solutions for MiFID II regulatory compliance .