Blog: Why is it important that your call recording service is MiFID II compliant?

 

Why is it important that your call recording service is MiFID II compliant?

Since January 2018, the new MiFID II rules have been in effect in the European Union. But why is this important and will it impact your business?

The EU has been one of the first to step up to defend consumers. And the MiFID II is just one more step. While there were already rules determining transparency and protection for clients on calls, the MiFID II rules take things a step further.

Simply put, besides the rules that already existed, the MiFID II also introduces new requirements that include not only recording but also storing of all calls that can end up in a financial transaction. These calls need to be legally maintained by the company for 5 years to help create a greater level certainty and protection when discussing financial matters.

 

Company requirements

If a company wishes to be fully compliant with the MiFID II rules, they will need to be able to retain recorded calls on both fixed and mobile phones. So, with this in mind, their telecoms provider needs to be able to demonstrate that their solution covers both mobile and fixed calls whilst being able to easily retrieve calls for up to 5 years later.

But the MiFID II rules don’t end there. The reality is that with the EU requests businesses have an effective control over policies that are related to call recording. Including implementing monitoring programs that allow the calls to be easily retrieved, listened to you and when relevant, communicated across the business at any time.

 

Preventive measures

Besides recording, storing and monitoring calls, companies will also need to implement a system that alerts them whenever a call isn’t being recorded or retained due to a system error.

Without the necessary preventative systems in place finding out what has caused the issue could be a labour intensive process. All these types of issues and their explanations will also be required to be stored for 5 years.

According to the EU and the MiFID II rules, if a call recording service doesn’t comply with MiFID II rules, the business responsible for the service will be presented with a fine. In some cases, if many customers or consumers are affected by the service outage – the business could expect to receive quite a large fine.

 

Key facilities MiFID II compliant call recording service should include:

Once a business identifies it needs MiFID II compliance call recording facilities, it is important that the service includes the following facilities:

 

1) Does it include storage capacity?

Recording and storing all conversations for 5 years, will need to ensure that storage is included with substantial capacity for the future.

 

2) Is it secure?

Security is crucial. Businesses need to be guaranteed that the call recordings of financial transactions and information are secure, confidential and guaranteed.

 

3) Is easy to implement?

In order for the call recording service to comply with the law, it will need to be on specific hardware with the right software licenses and the appropriate expert personal available.

 

4) Is it affordable?

With calls requiring to be kept of 5 years, businesses will need to ensure that their solution is not only cost effective but also straightforward to implement.

 

5) Does it include Instant messaging?

With more and more calls and messages taking place on instant messaging services, businesses need to ensure that their solution includes all instant messaging instances – whether calls or texts.

If you would like to discuss your call recording requirements with a member of the Boom team, please email us at : info@boom.limited