BT today announced that it is joining forces with global mobile operator Truphone to market a mobile recording service for mobile devices to support US firms' compliance with new financial markets regulations called for by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.
Under the "oral recordkeeping" requirement of the Act, all companies operating or doing business with an organization in the US for certain regulated trading activities have to record all communications from mobile devices that lead to a trade. This information must be stored for a year in a retrievable format that can be easily searched, and includes conversations and data interactions made on mobile devices such as mobile phones and smartphones.
BT estimates that 50,000 to 70,000 mobile phone subscribers in the US could be covered by the Dodd-Frank Act and similar future regulations. The Truphone Mobile Recording service will be offered by Truphone along with BT's management services. The relationship will take advantage of BT's experiences in offering similar services in the UK.
The easy-to-use mobile recording service only requires a subscriber to install a Truphone SIM (subscriber identification module) card into an unlocked mobile phone. Recorded calls are then stored in a secure cloud based environment and can be quickly and easily searched and retrieved, supporting financial services firms to meet their compliance obligations.
Tom Regent, president, global banking & financial markets, BT, said: "As the Dodd-Frank Act and future regulations come into force, financial services institutions need technology partners who can act as a safe pair of hands to help them navigate successfully through the compliance maze and in a timely manner. BT's knowledge and experience of helping financial institutions address their global compliance and regulation obligations, combined with the power of Truphone's solution, means we are ideally placed to help our customers."
Rik Turner, senior analyst in Ovum's financial services technology practice, said: "BT is already helping a number of the UK financial services firms impacted by the Financial Conduct Authority (previously known as the Financial Services Authority) recording requirements for mobile devices to vices to comply with the regulations. It is now taking that experience to the US market, working with Truphone to provide a solution which satisfies the call recording regulations of the Dodd-Frank Act. Solutions such as that offered by BT and Truphone are the easiest and most logical ways to record mobile devices."
Paul Liesching, Senior Vice President, Truphone Mobile Recording, said: "We have embarked on this unique relationship with BT because of their strength and presence in the global financial markets. By working together to offer Truphone Mobile Recording to the US, we can continue to help firms meet industry regulations quickly and easily, as well as helping subscribers to be more productive. Our proven Truphone Mobile Recording solution is already used by many of the biggest banks in the world."
The solution can support any Global Certification Forum (GCF) certified mobile handset or operating system and uses Truphone's unique integrated global network and technology to enable the recording of calls without delays or disruption.
The Truphone service is offered over a global footprint. Truphone customers can enjoy the benefits of economical usage plans in seven countries outside of the US, where Truphone has a full network presence. It does this by storing multiple international numbers for the subscriber on the patented SIM - one for each country in which Truphone has a full network presence. This means that employees using their devices between or in any of these countries receive the benefits of a local subscriber. Further, Truphone mobile incoming and outgoing calls can be recorded from and to150 countries and incoming calls can be recorded from an additional 50 countries.