The Dodd-Frank Act (fully known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act) was brought into law by US President Obama in 2010 to create financial regulatory processes that enforce greater transparency and accountability, which in turn limit risk.

The act was brought in following the financial crisis of 2008 with its main goal to subject banks to more stringent regulation. The Act also created the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to address persistent financial industry issues, prevent another recession, and put into place a wide range of reforms that affect nearly every aspect of the financial system.

How does Dodd-Frank impact me?

Of course, one of the most obvious questions to ask is: “Why does Dodd-Frank affect me, when my organisation is not based in the US?”

Financial markets around the world are so interconnected that the changes enforced in the US by the Act impact almost all financial firms around the world – not just organisations based in the US. The Act not only impacts public banks, but also small or private investment banks, private enterprises and even individual financial advisors – put simply, anyone involved in providing information or tools that could lead to a financial transaction. It means that Dodd-Frank has a global impact that affects thousands of financial firms and advisors.

Furthermore, before the Act, few UK and EU-based investment firms were registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as those with less than 15 US-based clients/customers were exempt from having to register with the SEC. Dodd-Frank removed that exemption.

It means that many investment firms (whether based in the US or not) are required to register with the SEC, comply with all of the provisions of the Advisers Act and, notably, meet extensive record-keeping and reporting obligations for all registered – and some unregistered – investment managers and advisers. For example, Dodd-Frank requires Private Fund Advisers and VC Fund Advisers who rely on registration exemptions (under “Exempt Reporting Advisers”) to maintain certain records and submit these reports under what the SEC determines “necessary or appropriate in the public interest”.

The previously unregulated swaps market also falls under the Act. A swap occurs when a customised contract enables the private exchange of cashflows, payments or financial instruments between two parties. Given that most swaps were private conversations between two parties, the market was left unchecked, lacking in transparency and relatively unregulated. Dodd-Frank now enforces the recording of all calls related to swaps, for obvious reasons.

Extensive call recording regulations now apply to almost every financial firm

As a result, call recording became a major component of Dodd-Frank compliance with extensive call recording regulations now applying to almost every financial service organisation.

Any information or conversation that leads to a financial transaction must now be recorded and securely stored – including fixed and mobile phone calls, as well as other digital communications. All recordings must be consistently time-stamped, securely stored, and easily accessible on a WORM (Write Once Read Many) basis.

Given that it’s nigh on impossible to determine which communications will lead to a transaction, the Act essentially requires all conversations – voice and digital ­– to be recorded and stored for the duration of the transaction (and for up to five years afterwards depending on the type of transaction).

Very few financial services organisations, large or small, have legacy systems capable of recording multiple channels and securely storing large volumes of recorded files in a structured fashion that allows quick and easy search/retrieval capabilities. Such an undertaking requires significant resources.

Touch Call Recording Service takes the headache out of Dodd-Frank compliance

Touch Call Recording Service is a fully managed, multichannel, call recording service with no need for costly or risky hardware or software upgrades. It covers more than 50 different channels, including fixed and mobile calls, SMS, chat, enterprise applications such as MS Teams, on-premise and hosted PBX integrations, and multiple financial applications, such as Bloomberg Chat and Refinitiv Messenger.

No integration work is required, Touch Call Recording Service just works. Users can be on-boarded with a few clicks. The easy-to-use, intuitive Web-Portal offers comprehensive search and retrieval capabilities with all recordings searchable by multiple parameters. Every search is logged – by each administrator, date, time, and search parameter – meaning that our service is tamper-proof, auditable and transparent from the end user right through to the administrator.

It requires no user intervention – for example, if an advisor is recorded on a specific channel, or channels, then the call or communication is automatically recorded.

Touch Call Recording Service is a complete managed service and takes away the headache of regulatory compliance, including Dodd-Frank, MiFID/ MiFID II, PDPA, GDPR and other industry, local and international regulations and legislation. It’s highly flexible and scalable with no limits to the retention period and storage capacity.

Furthermore, our own compliance and technology roadmaps mean that our service remains not only compliant with any new or amended regulations in the future, but also remains at the cutting edge of technological excellence.

Touch Call Recording Service guarantees that financial organisations of all sizes can meet all their Dodd-Frank compliance regulations. Get in touch now, to find out how we can help.