Bank on it: cloud-based compliance recording for financial services

Compliance recording is essential for many financial services organizations. While this is nothing new, remaining compliant can be a challenge. What if you migrate your telephony to the cloud? How then can you ensure you adhere to the regulations for compliance recording for financial services?

It can seem daunting. There are a myriad of regulators (e.g.FINRA, FCA, MAS, SEC, SFC, CFTC), as well as laws, directives and responsibilities (e.g. Dodd-Frank, MiFID II, FinVermV, SYSC, PCI-DSS) that impose specific standards and requirements. These exist to ensure transparency around transactions. eliminate market manipulation, facilitate fair competition and, of course, protect investors. As a banking or financial services organization, as you evolve your business processes and technology, you need to you have an effective compliance recording solution to match.

Compliance recording for financial services: requirements and guidelines

In the past, you may have only needed to gather and provide information at the request of internal sources, clients, or financial authorities. The standard now in regulated markets is far greater. MiFID II for example – effective since January 2018, requires financial institutions in Europe to document and preserve all consultations potentially leading to a transaction for at least five years. You need to prove that all communications leading to transactions are recorded – even if a transaction is not completed. Further, recording is not enough on its own. You need to ensure that you meet the guidelines within those calls and conversations. FCA requirements, for example, look at the following detail around consultants’ calls:

1. Does a suggested service constitute a recommendation?
2. Does the recommendation relate to one or more transactions in financial instruments?
3. Is the recommendation appropriately formulated or based on consideration of the person's circumstances?
4. Is the recommendation released other than exclusively through distribution channels or to the public?
5. Is the recommendation made to a person as an investor or potential investor or investor's agent?

The devil is always in the detail. And that detail not only needs to be recorded and stored but be retrievable if need be. MiFID II, for example, stipulates this period as being at least five years. Clearly, you need a compliance recording solution that is proven and future-proof.

Talk is cheap. The penalties are not.

A failure to comply with guidelines or a breach of reporting obligations can result in severe penalties for financial services organizations. As the saying goes, talk is cheap. Without a doubt, the penalties for not recording those conversations are not.

In 2019, Goldman Sachs was fined USD 1 million and HSBC was fined USD 2 million for compliance recording failures. In both cases, the organizations fell short of the required standard due to unforeseen incidents and human error. Notably, to reduce this kind of failure, MiFID II requires you to not just ensure regular testing of your technology but to also record those testing processes.

Keeping compliant with GDPR

And what about the data side of the equation? Within Europe, all organizations must also remain compliant with GDPR regulations. These cover areas such as data access rights, how long a company can keep records, protecting data from theft or loss, and the right to be forgotten. This means that any compliance recording solution you implement must also:

• Record the intended purpose of call recording
• Capture explicit consent from the client / customer
• Securely store all recorded data
• Allow access and retrieval of specific call recordings as needed
• Enable proper handling of data requests by clients / customers
• Provide robust protection against external and internal security risks

Compliance recording for financial services within Microsoft Teams

Keeping compliant may sound complicated and expensive. Yet with the addition of cloud calling to Microsoft Teams – and Operator Connect making it easier than ever to bring PSTN telephony to the platform – compliance recording through Microsoft Teams is a compelling opportunity. The biggest challenge, yet arguably the easiest to meet, is simply to choose the right partner and solution provider to work with.

NTT is a Microsoft Global Gold Partner and currently holds 17 Gold Competences. Over the past decade, we have received more than 20 global Microsoft Partner of the Year awards, including its 2019 award for Intelligent Communications. For compliance recording and analytics within Microsoft Teams, we specify ASC Recording Insights, a solution developed by ASC Technologies.

ASC Recording Insights is a Microsoft-certified compliance recording solution that integrates with Teams. With it, you can capture and store entire communications in the Azure Cloud – or other location you specify. It guarantees compliance with the complex requirements of MiFID II, HIPAA, Dodd-Frank, GDPR, FinVermV and more. It’s a seamless, foolproof way to protect your business and ensure you meet compliance requirements.

Compliance recording – configured to your needs

Of course, as well as industry-specific recording requirements, your organization may have company-specific needs too. With ASC Recording Insights you can easily customize compliance recording within Microsoft Teams to your needs. You can define recording of inbound and/or outbound calls, which users or roles, storage locations, access to recordings, automated alerts and more. The settings are easy to configure and it integrates with cloud calling via Operator Connect or Direct Routing options too. Crucially, it keeps you compliant wherever your workers operate, whether office-based or remote.

This walkthrough video shows just how easily you can deploy compliance recording within Microsoft Teams. It’s a solution that means you can adapt and meet future business requirements without significant additional overhead.

Reliable, secure, proven and effective

Meeting compliance recording requirements is non-negotiable. How to achieve it then – particularly if migrating to cloud calling - can naturally be a concern. In transforming your collaboration you need to ensure you still adhere to the appropriate regulations worldwide.

Rest assured, with a reliable, secure, proven and effective solution for Microsoft Teams, compliance recording for financial services has never been easier.