VoIP Call Recording

So guess what else happened November 14? That’s right -- the removal of the UK Financial Services Authority's exemptions for mobile phones in communications.

Are financial services firms sufficiently prepared for their brave new world? Industry observer James Rundle recently posted some interesting thoughts on that.

The regulation says firms involved in investment advice must monitor and record all mobile phone conversations from their employees directly related to the practice. As Rundle says, you’d think that with a year to get ready, companies would have been ready to hit the ground running.

You’d have thought wrong.

"If anything, I think some companies have underestimated the new nature of the technology. They've been lulled into a false sense of security with other recording solutions on a fixed-line basis," Rundle quotes Paul Metcalfe, head of voice trading at Orange (News - Alert) Business Services–Trading Solutions, as saying.

TeleWare officials have announced that, by working with BT (News - Alert), they have enabled investment, wholesale and retail banks as well as insurers meet the new Financial Services Authority mobile call recording regulations.

These customers are now using the network-based recording service for mobile devices.

"One of the key features of the BT / TeleWare Mobile call recording is speed of deployment without disruption to the workplace," explains Steve Haworth (News - Alert), CEO, TeleWare Plc. "Based on the first batch of customers, a complete trading unit is typically taking only hours to go live, once numbers are ported. More importantly, there is zero down time for any staff and no user training is required," adds Haworth.

Rundle says the regulations resemble those evident in the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive review published recently, “which has provisions for communications monitoring and will require a three-year retention of records.”

Honestly, with all the time and effort required for regulation compliance it’s a wonder businesses have any time left to actually conduct business.