American stock transfer and trust company: records protection mustgrow with the business

Customer Success Stories

As the company grows, American Stock Transfer needs to move to a more efficient, offsite, best practices records management solution.

February 3, 20168 mins
four people sitting in chairs talking business

American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC (AST) is the largest privately held, independent transfer agents in the United States. With more than 40 years of experience, AST provides advisory, fiduciary and administrative solutions to more than 2,800 public companies. The company is well known for its leading innovation and comprehensive services.

In order to continue to innovate and keep pace with corporate growth, AST chose a new solution that would address its needs around regulation compliance, secure offsite storage and destruction.

Challenge:

As the company grew, American Stock Transfer needed to move to a more efficient, offsite, best practices records management solution.

Solution:

Iron Mountain® Records and Information Management Services

Value
  • Support company's growth and increase storage needs.
  • Free up space and reallocate staff.
  • Effectively manage records for quick and easy access.
  • Deliver records protection in compliance with industry regulations.

Records Protection Needed to Grow with the Business

In addition to storing and protecting its own corporate records, AST maintains records on behalf of its clients. Since there are different retention policies for different records due to industry regulations, AST understood its records and information program needed to evolve with the growth of the company.

Mike Carney, Vice President of Operations for AST, explains, "Our records were being maintained and held in a secure location at our facility. However, our growth necessitated that we look for someone who could store, manage and protect our information, someone who was the best at it, and would be able to accommodate our current and future growth."

By moving their storage to a secure, offsite location, AST ensured that its records would be handled with the utmost security and would also be in compliance with the highly regulated financial services industry.

"Transitioning to an offsite records management solution was a collective, strategic decision by our organization. We wanted to be in a better position in terms of records management. Our growth, planning for risk reduction and desire to move our records offsite as part of our business continuity plan led us to Iron Mountain."

MIKE CARNEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS

Increased Security and Access; Decreased Space and Staffing Needs

AST mitigates the risk of its records management program by outsourcing its document storage to Iron Mountain. This allows AST to have improved visibility to its records while also resulting in space savings in the company-owned facilities. "One reason we chose Iron Mountain is their highly regarded reputation," Carney comments. "But, we also chose Iron Mountain due to their ability to store records in an extremely secure offsite facility with secure pickup and delivery. Plus, offsite storage allowed us to free up space and dedicated resources."

Mike and his team are now able to use the space previously dedicated to storing records to accommodate the growing staff. Furthermore, the employees who were managing records have been reallocated to handle other higher-level priorities.

Improved access to information in a competitive environment allows AST to quickly adapt to the changing needs of its clients. "Our research time and turnaround time have improved immensely," Carney states. "It's nice to be able to answer our clients' concerns and questions promptly."

"We needed to be flexible and quickly adapt to the changing needs of our clients. Iron Mountain offered a wide range of services that could align with AST's needs."

MIKE CARNEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS

A Partner for Growth

AST identifies, classifies and retains information according to industry regulations to ensure its clients' sensitive documents are being securely maintained. With regulatory requirements changing frequently, AST stays ahead of the curve by constantly reviewing and monitoring what it considers to be best practices to provide the highest levels of service.

As a means to increase efficiency and streamline operations, AST added Iron Mountain Secure Shredding services to securely destroy canceled security certificates and other documents, as required by applicable laws and regulations, to mitigate the risks relating to data privacy and fraudulent use of canceled certificates.

Carney concludes, "When we respond to a request for proposal, we are often asked about who we work with to keep our information protected and secure. We proudly state that we use Iron Mountain, and have never had a second question after that."

"Transitioning to an offsite records management solution was a collective, strategic decision by our organization."