Microsoft 365 for Finance: Collaboration With Financial Data Protection

A publicly traded company runs its finance function on M365. The controller shares the preliminary close results in a Teams channel before they're finalized. An FP&A analyst forwards the board pack draft via email to get feedback from a colleague. The treasury team discusses the upcoming debt issuance in a Teams chat. Each of these contains material non-public information that insider trading regulations (SEC Rule 10b-5, Reg FD) require the company to control. None of it is labeled, classified, or restricted. An employee who shouldn't have access to preliminary results can find them through M365 search. This is the data protection problem that most finance teams don't address until the general counsel raises it after an incident.

Finance M365 done right addresses the financial data protection requirements. Sensitivity labels for MNPI (preliminary results, earnings data, M&A analysis, board communications). DLP policies that prevent MNPI from being shared outside approved recipients. Information barriers between the deal team and the broader organization during M&A. Teams channels for close coordination with appropriate membership and retention. SharePoint libraries for financial documents with version control and access logging. Done this way, M365 supports the close and protects the information the SEC cares about. Done without these controls, it creates the next compliance incident.