Compliance: joining the dots with BT
Banks today face a triple challenge: sustained new regulations, inflating fines and personal accountability are affecting front and back office teams. How can compliance and surveillance officers get it right?
Re:sources talked to Mark Harrington, BT UK GB&FM specialist consultant about the compliance challenge:
Can you tell us more about the scale of the problem, Mark?
Compliance Officers investigating potential compliance failures can be faced with collating and analysing sometimes tens of thousands of artefacts. They also have to identify and interview hundreds of personnel.
Very often these investigations are triggered by false alarms: the Dow Jones 2015 Anti Money Laundering Survey reported that nearly half (49 per cent) of screen alerts are false alarms – and for 1 in 3 banks this figure is as high as 75 per cent.
There are people and legacy technology problems too. Traders want the freedom to interact with their customers to build a relationship beyond the quotation engine, and this may mean many of them use a dozen or so identities to connect with their colleagues and their customers.
Different compliance policies may also be in operation within different departments, with no standard practice being observed across the trading organisation. And legacy technology often means that ‘stove-piped’ solutions have been put in place for voice, email, messaging, trade data, unstructured documentation and many other areas.
There’s rarely a joined up view of all of the information
that is needed to focus the organisation’s compliance effort
So there’s rarely a joined up view of all of the information that is needed to focus the organisation’s compliance effort.
What has changed over recent years?
MH: Historically compliance has been a contained function with more people being added as demand dictated. But costs have spiralled, the environment has changed dramatically and the speed at which it operates has accelerated to such a degree that constantly adding more human resources is no longer viable long term.
So what can firms do about it?
MH: Changing the culture of the trader community won’t happen overnight.
Banks will need to continue investing in their compliance officers and in the technology they need to ensure they have the skills and ability to keep ahead of inappropriate behaviour.
The continued use of social media platforms by traders and bank employees and their counterparties means that new techniques will be required to identify and flag inappropriate friendships and interactions on the World Wide Web. Investigations into the inappropriate use of social media will require specialised tooling and technology spanning the multiple platforms and protocols used in the social media arena.
But the Senior Managers’ Regime (SMR) which has recently come into effect makes top management personally accountable for any breaches, with a real possibility that they can be jailed for any serious failures.
So compliance is rising to the top of the agenda, and has become a board level issue.
How can BT help?
BT is a long-standing partner to financial organisations and we have a rich heritage in delivering the core trading systems, recorders and communications to enable traders to execute trades.
We are unique in being able to offer this breadth of service on a global scale, and we are expanding our portfolio all the time.
Our Fixed and mobile voice recording creates an archive of quality recordings whether on or off the trade floor. Automated Compliance Assurance ensures your compliance infrastructure is working technically and to policy by creating an archive of the appropriate quality.
And our new Surveillance, Discovery and Investigation tooling offers compliance teams the best possible view of all available data using techniques proven by law enforcement and security systems around the world.
Does working with BT mean carrying out a total technology refresh?
We aim to make the most of your existing investments, so our solutions are designed work alongside existing components. Our Quick Start methodology helps identify where you are now and how you can move from silo to a coherent surveillance and discovery toolset. Our aim is to help you reduce complexity by allowing surveillance officers to move beyond simple discovery to intelligently join the dots while rogue individuals seek to circumvent detection.
We have the skills and relationships to deliver not only on the trade floor but to extend into the contact centre, enterprise and branch environments, where many organisations have significant compliance gaps and potentially significant risks under the new compliance regimes.
In short we leverage both the extensive experience of BT and our partners to help you rapidly improve your response to increased regulatory oversight across the entire enterprise.
Mark will be one of the speakers at our Compliance events in Paris and London in March.
Email Mark Harrington to find out more about how we can help you meet your regulatory obligations or visit the BT website
For more information about BT Surveillance, Discovery and Investigation contact Eugene Land
Download the Regulation and Mobile Recording brochure
Download the BT Automated Compliance Assurance brochure