New partnership provides financial services companies with integrated solution to comply with the FSA's records policy requirements
Watford, UK 6 June 2006 - AXS-One, the leader in high performance records compliance management, has signed a representative and third party service provider agreement with Atlantic Link, a global provider of business consulting services to the financial services market. The partnership has been established to help UK financial services companies to comply with the FSA's records policy requirements. It marries Atlantic Link's expertise in identifying and translating regulatory requirements into policies, with AXS-One's 15-year track record of delivering software solutions that help organisations address regulatory compliance, corporate governance, e-discovery and broad areas of risk management.
This announcement comes at a time when the Financial Service Authority has pledged to hand out tougher penalties to organisations that fail to develop the appropriate systems to ensure compliance .
The negative financial and brand implications of non-or late compliance with electronic records legislation, was propelled into the spotlight by the Security Exchange Commission, when it demanded $2.5 million from Merrill Lynch for failing to produce requested e-mail messages in a timely fashion in March 2006. The FSA followed suit by announcing in April 2006 that a key issue for the FSA for 2006 is to ensure ‘effective deterrence against wrongdoing and it would consider the types and levels of penalties to impose to ensure a change in behaviour '. The FSA defines that firms under investigation must make electronic records available for inspection within two business days of the request being received .
Mark Donkersley, Managing Director at AXS-One said: “The AXS-One and Atlantic Link partnership brings together the market leader for high performance records compliance management and one of the UK 's leading change and risk management specialists for the financial services industry. As the company that pioneered technology to address the stringent requirements of the Securities Exchange Commission as it relates to the management and retention of electronic records, we understand the concerns currently facing the UK financial services industry. For more than a decade, the AXS-One Compliance Platform™ has been helping financial services companies worldwide implement and enforce policies that address complex regulatory compliance, discovery and operational requirements.
“The combination of Atlantic Link's experience of implementing the right processes and systems to meet FSA requirements and our software, means that financial organisations are able to set and electronically enforce the correct policies to manage, store, archive and safeguard the integrity, security and privacy of all electronic records, including e-mail .”
Commenting on the strategic alliance, Eric Werner, Partner at Atlantic Link said: “The AXS-One platform facilitates the job of Compliance and Risk officers throughout the financial services sector. The solution strengthens the integrity of the information upon which financial institutions base their major business decisions and allows them to retrieve information on demand if the company is required to do by the FSA . We have carried out significant due diligence in the course of our discussions with AXS-One and believe that we are partnering with a company that provides the most comprehensive and proven solution in this market space.”
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About AXS-One
AXS-One Inc. (AMEX: AXO) is a leading provider of high performance Records Compliance Management solutions. The AXS-One Compliance Platform enables organisations to implement secure, scalable and enforceable policies that address records management for corporate governance, legal discovery and industry regulations such as SEC17a-4, NASD 3010, Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, The Patriot Act and Gramm-Leach Bliley. AXS-One's award-winning technology has been critically acclaimed as best of class and delivers digital archiving, business process management, electronic document delivery and integrated records disposition and discovery for e-mail, instant messaging, images, SAP and other corporate records. Founded in 1979, and headquartered in Rutherford , NJ , AXS-One has offices worldwide including in the United States , Australia , Singapore , United Kingdom and South Africa . For further information, visit the AXS-One web site at http://www.axsone.com .
AXS-One, the AXS-One logo, "Access Tomorrow Today," AXSPoint, and TransAXS are registered trademarks of, and AXS-One Compliance Platform, AXS-One Retention Manager, "The Records Compliance Management Company," e-Cellerator, AXS Desk, "AXS-One Collaboration FrameWorks," SMART, AXS-Link and Tivity are trademarks of, AXS-One Inc., in the U.S. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies
About Atlantic Link Management Services Ltd
Atlantic Link is a specialist consulting business based in the City of London . The company focuses on change management of Compliance, Risk and Operations in the Financial Services sector. It also provides ‘Go To Market' services for a small number of partners with best-of-breed solutions that address these issues.
For more information, please contact:
Lighthouse PR for AXS-One
Emma Ballard / Ruth Jones
axs-one@lighthousepr.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7494 6590
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/Speeches/2006/0411_mc.shtml
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/hb-releases/rel35/rel35mcob.pdf |
