In last year’s rapid move to remote, work-from-home environments, technology made it possible for financial services workers to continue to collaborate and be productive. But it also led to shortfalls in oversight that created regulatory and reputational risks, according to a recent survey.

While most of the firms in a survey of over 100 IT and compliance leaders said that they had moved to remote-work models and adopted tools like Zoom to accommodate staff working from home, very few established retention and oversight programs for these communications, according to the 10th Annual Risk and Compliance Survey Report by Portland, Ore.-based fintech Smarsh.

“Firms are facing an urgent need for much more comprehensive supervision of the broadest possible array of digital communications and collaboration tools,” said Stephen Marsh, Smarsh founder and chairman, in released comments. “Regulators have made it clear that failure to do so will trigger significant fines and penalties.”

Specifically, approximately 70% of the leaders surveyed said their firms had moved to remote work, and 86% within that groups said that more than three-quarters of their workforce stayed in that remote-work model. But only 22% of the firms using remote conferencing tools had established programs for the oversight of that communication content.

Smarsh said that the shortcomings extend to instant message platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams, where 30% of financial firms do not have a system for retaining and monitoring their content.

At its heart, Smarsh is a tool that captures digital messages from employees of broker-dealers, RIAs, insurance companies and banks and archives them for compliance and risk purposes. The firm said that the lack of oversight is a “concerning gap” in procedures and policies and that financial companies are falling short of their regulatory obligations.

“The pandemic has accelerated digital communications trends that are positioned to remain part of the long-term industry landscape, regardless of what happens in the public health arena this year and beyond,” said Marsh. “Given the incredible growth in volume and variety of digital communications content, firms need to make sure that they have extended their retention and oversight efforts accordingly. Those that fail to do so are much more vulnerable to risk.”