SEC regs boost outside escrow

SEC regulations are boosting outside escrow as financial services firms increasingly turning to outside vendors to provide offsite storage of optical records. The industries must comply with SEC regulations stipulating that records kept on optical disc must be stored off site. Those functions are being addressed by firms such as Data Securities International (DSI, San Francisco,

http://www.DSIescrow.com) that provides records escrow services.

The SEC demands that a duplicate copy of each optical disc must be stored off site with the original at a different location. All information on each original and duplicate optical disc must be organized and indexed. All information necessary to download records and indexes stored on optical disc must be surrendered upon request of the SEC. Or, the broker-dealer must place in escrow a current copy of the file format of the optical disc.

In addition, the SEC requires that a third party, with the ability to download the information from optical to another acceptable media should be designated to the SEC. This third party should be prepared to furnish to the SEC all information contained on the optical discs but in another format such as microfiche.