How secure is WhatsApp?
As a fully regulated fund manager, we are obliged to obtain verification of identity of the customer as part of our customer due diligence requirements. Under MAS Notice SFA04-N02 6.29 and 6-11-3, it is deemed acceptable that a CMI (Capital Market Institution) can accept verification of identity electronically or in a non face-to-face situation.
Documents are requested only via our corporate WhatsApp number which is connected to our secured StashAway network, protected by firewall and requires multi-factor authentication to access. It is a VPN, just like your bank’s intranet.
WhatsApp also has end-to-end encryption, while other channels like emails do not.