Danish Financial Supervisory Authority issues orders to Danske Bank, Jyske Bank and Nykredit Bank to strengthen retention of investment communications

The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority published a thematic review finding that securities dealers can improve how they document and properly store records of investment-related services, activities and transactions for clients, and issued three supervisory orders to Danske Bank A/S, Jyske Bank A/S and Nykredit Bank A/S. The review of the three firms identified compliance challenges and recurring errors, with some issues linked to insufficient focus on controls and reliance on manual processes that increase exposure to human error. Examples included situations where employees must manually activate recording of telephone calls, and where communication takes place on unapproved channels such as WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram, which the firm cannot reliably retain. The authority reiterated that the rules require, among other things, recording telephone conversations and retaining electronic messages on an approved channel that the securities dealer can store, and stressed that responsibility for compliance rests with the firm rather than individual employees, highlighting training, increased automation and follow-up on control results as potential mitigants.