Financial institutions – commercial and investment banks, securities firms, insurance companies, and the like – handle some of the world’s most sensitive information. From confidential SEC disclosures to personal financial data to secrets that could impact the entire world economy, financial organizations need tools to ensure that the information they are privy to is handled properly.

Because of the proprietary nature of the work they do, financial institutions have compliance departments. These departments play a vitally important role within the organization, as they are responsible for setting corporate compliance policy and ensuring that all staff adhere to critical governmental, industry, and corporate regulations and policies.

For a compliance officer, call recording can prove an invaluable tool. Why? Because if a call center employee at a financial institution fails to abide by relevant regulations, the organization could incur costly fines or damaging lawsuits.

Regulations and regulators that impact financial institutions include:

• SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) regulations: these rules and requirements govern the practices of the U.S. securities industry. In its role, the SEC oversees the key participants in the securities world, including securities exchanges, securities broker/dealers, investment advisors, mutual funds, and more.
• State insurance regulatory bodies: oversee the practices of insurance firms by state.
• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act): protects patients' private information
• Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act: protects consumers from abusive financial services practices by large banks.
• PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard): protects customers from the misuse of their credit card information.
• Truth in Lending Act: protects consumers in their dealings with lenders and creditors.

Call recording software enables compliance officers at financial institutions to record the calls of their call center agents. By taking a sampling of calls (quality monitoring) or listening to all calls (total call recording), compliance staff can verify that interactions are being handled correctly. And when they’re not? Access to these calls can help the department identify potential problem areas and implement corrective actions, thereby preventing the company from exposure to potential fines or legal action.

Call recording also proves helpful should a dispute ever arise about compliance. If your organization is notified by a government or other regulatory body that a compliance infraction may have occurred, many times proof of innocence is required. When you can offer such proof through a full audio or screen recording captured by a call recording system, it’s easy to disprove the accusation. Without such concrete evidence, a financial institution faces great exposure, whether the infraction occurred or not.