Vodafone Global Enterprise, the Vodafone business providing managed communication solutions and services to multinational enterprise customers, has announced the launch of a new service to enable regulated financial firms to record all incoming and outgoing mobile calls and texts, as new regulations on compliance loom.
The solution will significantly enhance governance, business continuity and risk management processes. The launch comes as the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK reviews the need to record mobile phone calls and texts made by employees of regulated companies from business devices to improve governance procedures.
The solution – Vodafone Mobile Recording – enables regulated companies to record and archive mobile conversations, voicemails and text messages to protect against losses from disputes, support mobile working practices, and deliver improved compliance and risk management capabilities. It will be made available across Europe.
Although financial companies commonly record calls on fixed lines as part of their regulatory requirements, mobile calls and texts have, until now, been exempt due to the technical complexity involved.
Vodafone Mobile Recording is said to provide a simple and cost effective way of recording relevant conversations, as users simply make or receive calls and send or receive text messages, in the same manner as they do today. The solution routes all inbound and outbound voice calls through the company's existing in-house voice recording platforms, using a client application on the user's handset, supported by resilient servers based on the customer's premises. This enables managers to search both archived fixed and mobile calls on the same system. In this way, all recorded data is retained by the company within its own secure environment to protect confidentiality as well as employees' privacy.
Additionally, the solution records all text message communications and Vodafone will look to enable the recording of other mobile communication formats as the solution evolves.
"In the finance sector, employees are increasingly using mobile rather than fixed line handsets due to a significant rise in the adoption of flexible working practices. Factors such as the travel disruption caused by the volcanic ash have given this trend added momentum as workers stranded in remote locations seek to work to the same high standards of compliance and governance," said Nick Jeffery, Chief Executive of Vodafone Global Enterprise. "The Vodafone Mobile Recording solution helps financial institutions to meet key compliance and risk management objectives and demonstrates Vodafone Global Enterprise's commitment to innovation in this sector."
The Vodafone Mobile Recording solution is expected to help firms more speedily resolve any disputes arising from transactions performed while using mobile communications, and satisfy demands from regulators who are proposing to bring mobile communications under the same rules as fixed line communications.
The EU's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), which came into effect in November 2007 called for the recording of fixed line calls for regulated firms, in order to help detect and deter market abuse. The UK's FSA has launched a consultation into whether the scope of such recording should be widened to include the recording of mobile phone calls and SMS. The EU is also assessing compliance requirements for regulated companies under its MiFID review.