Key Takeaways:
- UAM supports—but does not replace—regulatory compliance.
It provides compliance, HR, and legal teams with detailed user activity logs that help demonstrate the enforcement of internal controls. - Granular visibility helps protect client data.
UAM tracks how sensitive financial and customer information is accessed, used, and shared, flagging anomalies that could signal risk. - Audit readiness is improved with behavioral context.
UAM creates an immutable digital paper trail, reducing the time and effort needed to prepare for regulatory audits. - Workforce oversight is consistent across hybrid and remote teams.
UAM captures user behavior across locations and networks, ensuring client data handling remains secure and transparent. - Investigations and incident response become faster and more precise.
With full session context—including screen activity—UAM enables quick resolution of compliance or data-related incidents.
Protecting Client Data: How User Activity Monitoring (UAM) Supports Compliance in Financial Services
Financial services firms are among the most highly regulated and risk-sensitive environments. User activity monitoring, compliance, and audit readiness are essential for protecting client data and maintaining operational integrity. With sensitive client data, critical financial systems, and increasingly complex compliance mandates, firms need more than traditional IT security tools. They need operational insight into user activity across their digital environment.
That’s where User Activity Monitoring (UAM) comes in. By continuously monitoring how employees, contractors, and third parties interact with systems and data, UAM enables financial institutions to maintain audit readiness, enhance productivity, and support thorough investigations—all without disrupting day-to-day operations.
Supporting Major Initiatives
1. Operational Risk & Employee Productivity
Financial institutions are now tracking operational risk alongside financial and IT risk. Inefficient processes, human error, or lack of visibility into employee workflows can impact performance, audit outcomes, and resource planning.
2. Compliance & Audit Readiness
Regulatory bodies increasingly expect real-time evidence of internal control effectiveness. Tools that log and contextualize user activity are mission-critical for identifying non-compliant behavior and supporting teams who must prove due diligence during audits.
3. Remote Work & Workforce Behavior Shifts
With hybrid and remote work models becoming the norm, firms must understand how employee behavior affects collaboration, engagement, and policy adherence.
4. Digital Transformation & Tech Stack Visibility
Financial firms often operate with legacy systems and fragmented infrastructure. UAM provides cross-platform visibility to help IT and operations leaders understand tool usage and drive process improvements.
5. Behavioral Trends for Efficiency & Accountability
UAM tools surface behavioral trends that inform coaching, resource allocation, and policy enforcement. Anomalies in usage patterns may signal process gaps or the need for intervention.
Visibility is the Foundation of Compliance & Productivity
User Activity Monitoring (UAM) delivers continuous, granular insight into user behavior across systems, enhancing visibility, behavioral analytics, and data access logs to support audit readiness and compliance initiatives. From application usage and file handling to email, chat, and web activity, it helps identify questionable actions before they become compliance violations or operational issues.
It’s not about surveillance—it’s about transparency and accountability.
Here’s how UAM helps financial firms support audit readiness, improve efficiency, and stay in control:
Regulatory Compliance—Clarity Amid Complexity
Financial organizations, from broker-dealers and investment firms to banks and fintech startups, face intense scrutiny. Agencies like the SEC, FINRA, OCC, and CFPB require strong internal controls and documented enforcement. UAM provides the activity logs and behavioral context compliance teams rely on to demonstrate that internal controls are in place and enforced.
SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
- What it requires: Strict controls over financial reporting and data handling.
- How UAM helps: Tracks end-user interactions with accounting systems, spreadsheets, and sensitive databases—detailing unauthorized access or attempts to manipulate data.
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- Example: UAM logs after-hours attempts by non-finance users to access the general ledger, showing when and by whom the ledger was accessed.
FINRA Rule 3110 & 4511
- What it requires: Supervise employee activity and accurate business communications records.
- How UAM helps: Captures and organizes user activity across email, chat, and shared drives for easy investigation.
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- Example: UAM detects sensitive client data from an unauthorized email account and provides the full session context.
GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act)
- What it requires: Protection of customer data and enforceable security programs.
- How UAM helps: Reinforces least-privilege access and flags suspicious behavior even from authorized users.
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- Example: UAM tracks files created, deleted, modified, or extracted by an employee within specified records systems and sends alerts if configured.
PCI DSS
- What it requires: Monitoring and tracking of access to payment systems and cardholder data.
- How UAM helps: Provides detailed activity records for all interactions with payment systems.
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- Example: UAM notes a sudden spike in downloaded payment files by a support rep and flags it for compliance review.
GDPR / Global Data Protection Rules
- What it requires: Audit trails and transparency around how personal data is accessed and handled.
- How UAM helps: Maintains user-level logs that show how PII is accessed, viewed, and shared within the organization.
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- Example: UAM provides a full report of every employee interaction with that customer’s data when responding to a subject access request.
Note: While UAM supports compliance teams with critical visibility and audit documentation, it does not replace required security controls or regulatory policies.
User Activity Monitoring (UAM) Adds Context to Data Movement
While traditional tools show that a file was accessed or moved, UAM shows the full picture of which apps were involved, what else the user was doing, and how their behavior deviated from normal.
Example: A junior employee exports client records from a CRM and sends them to a personal email. UAM captures the file path, email content, and screen activity before and after the event—providing investigative clarity.
Behavioral Insight for Early Detection
UAM establishes a behavioral baseline for each user. Deviations—such as accessing new systems, logging in at odd hours, or using unsanctioned apps—are flagged for further review. This helps identify disengagement, non-compliance, or potential misconduct early, allowing HR or compliance to step in before problems escalate.
Built for Investigations, Not Surveillance
UAM supports workplace investigations and audit responses with an immutable digital paper trail. When deployed transparently and aligned with company policy, it becomes a foundation for a culture of fairness and operational accountability.
Why Financial Services Firms Can’t Afford to Wait
UAM isn’t about spying or watching for wrongdoing; it’s about giving leadership, IT, and compliance teams the insights they need to make informed decisions.
Gain the visibility to protect client data, simplify audits, support your workforce, and reduce operational blind spots.
Visibility. Accountability. Control.
FAQs: UAM for Financial Services
Q: How does UAM differ from traditional SIEM or DLP systems? A: SIEM and DLP tools monitor system-level events and data flow. UAM complements them by focusing on user behavior across endpoints and apps. It provides session-level context, showing what happened, how, and why.
Q: Can UAM help us meet compliance requirements? A: Yes. UAM generates detailed, immutable logs that support:
- Internal control documentation (SOX)
- Communication supervision (FINRA 3110/4511)
- Data handling compliance (GLBA, PCI DSS, GDPR)
- Audit readiness with centralized access to activity records. Note: UAM supports but does not guarantee compliance. It equips compliance and legal teams with the necessary visibility and evidence to demonstrate adherence to regulatory expectations.
Q: How does UAM support a remote or hybrid workforce? A: UAM works across remote and on-prem devices, even when off-network. It tracks:
- App and system usage
- Data access and transfers
- Unusual behavior like screen sharing or cloud uploads. This ensures consistent compliance and oversight regardless of location.
Q: What about employee privacy? A: UAM can be implemented thoughtfully by:
- Minimizing unnecessary data collection
- Involving HR in policy communication
- Limiting access to sensitive logs to authorized personnel
- Offering anonymization or masking features when applicable. The goal is not surveillance but to support compliance and operational transparency.
Q: Will this add to IT’s workload? A: No. Veriato UAM consolidates data from multiple systems, automates alerts and reporting, and gives HR or compliance direct access to insights—reducing IT burden.
Q: How does it scale? A: Veriato UAM is built for scalability across distributed teams and tech stacks. Features include:
- Lightweight agents
- Centralized dashboards
- API integrations with SIEM, IAM, and compliance tools
- Role-based access for different teams
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