FINRA and Faxed Communications — Retention, Supervision, and Recordkeeping
FINRA rules and SEC Rule 17a-4 require broker-dealers to retain business communications — including faxed client correspondence and order documents — in a non-rewriteable, non-erasable form with an audit trail. Send FAX Mail provides audit trails, retention, and export to feed your books-and-records archive from $39.99/month.
FINRA Requirements for Fax
- Retention of business communications for the FINRA/SEC-required periods (often 3 to 6 years, longer for some records)
- Records kept in a non-rewriteable, non-erasable (WORM) format under SEC Rule 17a-4
- Supervision and review of registered-representative communications under FINRA Rule 3110
- A complete audit trail of each communication and its handling
- Prompt retrievability and production of records for examination
- A Designated Third Party able to provide records to regulators if the firm cannot
How Send FAX Mail Meets FINRA
- A per-fax audit trail — sender, recipient, timestamp, page count, delivery status — for your recordkeeping evidence
- Configurable retention windows so faxes are kept for your required period
- Cloud-archive-to-your-own-bucket, letting you copy every fax into a 17a-4 WORM archive you control
- CSV and API export of fax history to feed your books-and-records and supervision systems
- Encryption in transit and at rest and per-user access controls on the fax application
- Honest scoping: our standard storage is not a certified WORM system — route retention through your 17a-4-compliant recordkeeping platform
Industries Affected
Starter
- 600 fax pages per month
- 1 dedicated fax number
- Send & receive faxes
- Fax to email delivery
- Fax history & downloads
- No per-page overage charges
Professional
- 2,000 fax pages per month
- 3 dedicated fax numbers
- HIPAA compliance + self-serve BAA
- Sign documents before sending
- Priority delivery
- No per-page overage charges
Business
- 5,000 fax pages per month
- 5 dedicated fax numbers
- HIPAA compliance + self-serve BAA
- Public API & webhooks
- Audit logs
- Team roles & permissions
- Priority support
Enterprise
- 8,000 fax pages per month
- 10 dedicated fax numbers
- Everything in Business
- Public API & signed webhooks
- Dedicated support
- Custom integrations
No per-page overage. No activation fees. No contracts. Cancel anytime.
What’s current · as of August 2026
- HIPAA large-breach reporting threshold
- 500+ individuals — reported to HHS OCR without unreasonable delay Source: HHS Office for Civil Rights
- HIPAA documentation retention period
- 6 years from creation or last-effective date Source: HHS — HIPAA Administrative Requirements (45 CFR 164.316)
Recent updates
Federal interoperability rules keep pushing healthcare past the fax machine
CMS has advanced a series of interoperability rules that press hospitals, payers, and providers toward electronic data exchange and standardized claims attachments. The direction of travel is clear: paper and analog fax workflows are being replaced by digital transmission that carries an auditable record — which is exactly what a cloud fax with delivery confirmation provides for offices not yet on a full EHR pipeline.
CMS →Federal agencies still write fax into new rules and notices
The Federal Register — the daily journal of U.S. federal rulemaking — regularly publishes rules and notices that reference fax as an accepted or required submission channel for filings with agencies like the IRS, SSA, and CMS. That is why fax remains a live requirement for many official forms even as electronic portals expand.
Federal Register →Healthcare breach reporting keeps document handling under scrutiny
Ongoing reporting on HIPAA breaches and OCR settlements underscores how much scrutiny falls on how medical documents are stored, sent, and received. Sending records through a controlled, access-logged channel rather than an unmanaged machine reduces the mishandling risks that show up repeatedly in breach analyses.
HIPAA Journal →
FINRA Fax Compliance — FAQ
Not by itself. Rule 17a-4 requires a non-rewriteable, non-erasable (WORM) archive with a Designated Third Party. Send FAX Mail is not a certified WORM system, but its cloud-archive-to-your-own-bucket, CSV export, and API let you copy faxed communications into a 17a-4-compliant archive your firm maintains.
FINRA Rule 3110 requires review of representative communications. Every fax carries an audit trail and is exportable via CSV and API, so your supervision system can ingest faxed correspondence alongside email and other channels for review.
Retention periods under FINRA and SEC rules commonly run three to six years, with some records required longer, and the first two years often in an easily accessible place. Send FAX Mail's configurable retention keeps faxes for your defined window, but your firm sets the authoritative period and archive.
Faxed order tickets and correspondence are business records subject to retention and supervision. Send FAX Mail transmits them encrypted with an audit trail; your compliance program still owns capturing them into your 17a-4 recordkeeping system and applying supervisory review.
FINRA-compliant faxing starts at $39.99/mo
Encrypted transmission, audit logs, secure storage. No enterprise contract needed.
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