Despite Corporate Policies, Confidential Documents Still Emailed

Survey Indicates Compliance with Corporate Policies is Weak Among Securitization Professionals

New York, September 4, 2007
While more than 76 percent of securitization professionals in the U.S. and Europe reported that their firms have policies against emailing confidential documents, 70 percent said that email was still the most common distribution method for exchange of important confidential documents. This is according to a survey by IntraLinks, Inc., the leading provider of online workspaces for secure document exchange within the financial services community.

More than 40%, however, reported that it was either “likely” or “extremely likely” that they would use a secure online workspace to share confidential documents for their next securitization or structured finance transaction.

IntraLinks’ recent online survey gauged the experiences of 177 American and European securitization professionals regarding communication trends, the regulatory outlook and market dynamics. Respondents reflected a mix of firms, including investment banks, law firms and private equity firms and a range of products and asset types, including CDOs, asset-backed securities and commercial mortgage-backed securities.

Confidentiality and speed were reported as the key factors in how respondents decided to share information. More than 68 percent of respondents cited confidentiality as an “extremely important factor,” while 49 percent named speed as “extremely important.”

“While email can be an easy way to communicate in most instances, it’s simply not ideal for situations involving sensitive information that must be shared between multiple parties,” said Andy Fieweger, vice president of product management for IntraLinks. “Email communication risks confidentiality, content integrity and version control, yet all of those risks can be averted in a more secure environment that’s just as fast as email. We’re seeing more and more companies shift to the use of secure, online workspaces to head-off risk and begin complying more with their own corporate policies.”

The survey also found that among European securitization professionals, Basel II stands out as the largest regulatory concern by far, as identified by 85 percent of respondents. Reasons cited for this concern included capital charges, implications of potential securitization regulation and uncertainty regarding how such regulation should be implemented. Sarbanes-Oxley and Regulation AB only merited concern from 20 percent and 17 percent of the respondents, respectively.

The survey was developed and administered in June 2007 by Tasnady Associates LLC.

About IntraLinks
IntraLinks® On-Demand Workspaces™ connect business communities and accelerate the intelligent flow of information and documents among participants. Through IntraLinks' secure, neutral, online environments, companies are better able to compete globally by accelerating essential business processes, simplifying communication and fostering rapid workflow. IntraLinks is easily accessible anywhere, anytime, using a web browser.

Since 1997, more than 700,000 participants representing over 80,000 organizations worldwide have used IntraLinks On-Demand Workspaces™ to communicate and collaborate on thousands of projects and transactions. IntraLinks has been adopted widely in the financial services and pharmaceutical industries, where its clients include AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank, FDIC, TD Securities, Thomas Weisel Partners and WestLB, among hundreds of others. Founded in 1996, IntraLinks is headquartered in New York with offices around the world.