Voice broking firms do not have a complete view of compliance risks until the speech is converted to data, experts say.

According to Anthony Tassone, founder of US-based transcription firm GreenKey Technologies, firms only tend to listen to voice conversations when there is a regulatory inquiry, leaving them unaware of non-compliant activity on a day-to-day basis.

“Firms doing transcription are the only ones who truly know if they are at risk of non-compliance. Everyone else is hoping nothing is on the recordings that hurts them,” Tassone said.

Under Mifid II in Europe and the Consolidated Audit Trail in the US, firms are required to keep an audit trail capturing conversations which lead to a transaction.  

Mark Slivovsky, senior product lead at US-based tech firm IPC, explained that even firms that do listen to calls outside of a regulatory investigation only tend to listen to a small percentage and tend to focus on certain individuals.

Tassone added: “Trading teams at banks only have 2/3 of a view. Until now they never had voice converted to data.”

During the first quarter of 2019, IPC and GreenKey expect to launch cloud-based technology which allows firms to convert voice to text and incorporate the data into front, middle and back office workflows.

The aim is to create a real-time data feed for voice text that can be analysed by the same tools that banks use to monitor email and chat.

“Trading teams are the biggest benefactors. This allows them to trade faster and helps them make better decisions. They have a better experience because they can look up and see the status of the last conversations,” Tassone said.

Slivovsky added: “The full conversation, quotes, and metadata as a data feed will better inform where the firms should optimise and automate their workflows.”

In October an expert said voice communications have emerged as a “huge threat” as global regulators step up enforcement of market abuse.