Financial Records Governance and Signed Exports

SEC Rule 17a-4 WORM-compliant trade audit logs stored permanently on Arweave. Cryptographic timestamps, immutable amendment chains, and zero egress fees - built for broker-dealers, RIAs, and public companies.

Regulatory records that can't be rewritten.

Financial record-keeping is legally broken.

Key challenges

Regulators are levying record fines

Broker-dealers, investment advisors, and public companies face multi-billion dollar penalties for failure to maintain adequate books and records. The most common cause: audit trails stored in mutable systems that were altered or deleted.

SEC Rule 17a-4 mandates WORM retention

The SEC requires broker-dealers to retain electronic records in a non-rewriteable, non-erasable (WORM) format for a minimum of six months in an accessible location and three years minimum thereafter - up to seven years total for many record types.

Chain of custody cannot be proven

When regulators request audit evidence, firms produce database exports and log files - all of which a sufficiently privileged insider or attacker could fabricate. There is no cryptographic proof that a record existed at a specific time and was never altered.

How Evercore satisfies regulators.

Solution

Trade records encrypted before leaving your system

AES-256-GCM encryption is applied server-side before the payload reaches Evercore. Regulatory compliance metadata - regulation type, retention period, WORM flag - is attached as Arweave transaction tags. The ciphertext that reaches the network is mathematically opaque without your API credentials.

Immutable by protocol, not by policy

Arweave's consensus rules make uploaded data permanent and uneditable at the protocol level - not just by contractual policy. This is not "we promise not to delete it": the network's economic incentive structure guarantees data availability for 200+ years without a service contract to renew.

Block height as a cryptographic timestamp

Every Arweave transaction is confirmed at a specific block height, giving you a tamper-proof timestamp backed by the network's proof-of-access consensus. Regulators can verify that a record existed at a given time by checking the transaction against the public blockchain - no third-party timestamp authority required.

Version chain as a complete audit trail

When a financial record is amended - a corrected trade confirmation, updated KYC document, restated filing - Evercore creates a new transaction with a Parent-TX tag linking back to the prior version. The full amendment history is on-chain, ordered by block height, and cannot be pruned or resequenced.

WORM semantics backed by consensus, not a checkbox in a SAN UI.

Regulators ask whether records can be altered after the fact. Confirmed Arweave transactions are not rewriteable at the protocol level - the audit story is anchored on-chain.

• Protocol-level WORM: No rewrite or delete opcode for confirmed data - immutability is a consensus rule, not a storage admin's pinky promise.
• Deterministic timestamps: Block height + TX ID give an external anchor auditors can verify against public explorers - parallel to how onchain settlement finality is proven.
• Amendment graph: Corrections append as new TXs with Parent-TX links, preserving the full story of how a record evolved - essential for FINRA-style exams.
• Segregated keys: Per-file derived keys mean you can disclose narrow slices to regulators without unlocking unrelated desks or strategies.

Does storing financial records on Arweave satisfy SEC/FINRA retention rules?

Arweave provides the immutability required by rules like SEC 17a-4. Evercore can generate WORM-compliant audit trails with timestamp proofs. However, compliance certification requires assessment by your compliance team against specific regulatory requirements.

Can we selectively disclose records to auditors without exposing all data?

Yes. Each file has its own derived encryption key and TX ID. Share only the specific TX IDs and decryption credentials needed for an audit scope. Unrelated records remain inaccessible to auditors.

What is the cost model for high-volume financial record storage?

Arweave storage costs are one-time (typically $0.003-0.01/MB). Evercore billing is based on API calls and data volume, not storage duration. Enterprise plans include volume discounts - contact sales.