UK wants traders’ mobile phone calls taped
Discussions have started in the UK which involves Banks and other financial companies recording traders’ mobile phone conversations.
Britain’s financial regulator said last Thursday – this is one way of cracking down on the insider dealings that have been taking place.
The Financial Services Authority have said they want a large amount of firms to take all “relevant communications” carried out by staff on their business mobile phones or other handheld electronic communication devices.
If this was to happen it would cover over 16,000 phones and would cost the industry a massive 11 million pounds ($16.8 million) to set up! The cost doesn’t stop there, another 18 million pounds a year would need to be spent to maintain this! These figures were estimated by the FSA in a consultation paper.
The FSA want industries to get busy, they require firms to record conversations on fixed-line telephones for the last year. At the moment mobile phones have been excluded, but the regulator said ‘technology had advanced enough to include them and remove a loophole in the rules’.
The plan is to cover voice conversations and other electronic communications that will involve the receipt of the client orders and negotiating, agreeing and arranging transactions in the equity, bond and financial and commodity derivatives markets, the consultation paper said.
It looks like over the next few months industries will be getting more and more tight on conversations made and will be cracking down on any mishaps.
