The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), to be enforced January 3rd 2018, requires firms to record all services, activities, and transactions across any electronic communications, including face to face meetings which should also be recorded by taking written minutes or notes: “Records shall include the recording of telephone conversations or electronic communications relating to, at least, transactions concluded when dealing on own account and the provision of client order services that relate to the reception, transmission and execution of client orders.” (Art.16(7))
It is on purpose that the Directive doesn’t go into detailing which electronic communication means are concerned; as technology moves so fast that ESMA acknowledges that such a detailed list would risk being obsolete in a very short timeframe. Obviously, the usual suspects are included: fax, mail, SMS, chats, videos,… Rather than a list of channels, what needs to be remembered, is that to be compliant, organizations must choose solutions that are future proof and can scale up to future challenges.
As end customers use an average of eight different channels to be in touch with organizations and to order services that are regulated under MiFID II, the easy answer to comply is really a no-brainer: just record all channels. But you know what they say about the details: that’s where the devil lies.
Watch out for the underdogs
Assuming that all interactions are recorded, how long does it take to retrieve evidence on channels such as chat and SMS? Unless organizations are using a consolidated system, how long does it take to make sense of a single customer’s journey and to identify all the interactions that are related to his/her orders across all of channels? What about those internal exchanges, which are also concerned by MiFID II? We witness that our customers shifting their strategies from multi to omnichannel are often driven by the fact that they can’t get a full picture and that they need to rely on multiple systems which is costly both in terms of time and resources.
The best practices that were once applied to voice only for compliance or quality now must, according to the new release of the Directive; be extended to all other electronic communications. For this reason we offer our customers an approach that integrates all channels under a single system to tag, retrieve and efficiently search and extract interactions, and ultimately be compliant from Day one, without the need to launch a manhunt for their interactions.
More to the point, if they are required by their National Competent Authority (NCA) to extend the retention of their policies from 5 to 7 years, they can track all concerned interactions across all channels, and promptly satisfy their requests. And this is equally true for the export of data – whether at the demand of their clients or the NCAs. Being able to change retention or export data is a requirement of MiFID II which necessitates specific sets of capabilities to ensure that they are completed within a reasonable timeframe and with minimum overheads for the teams in charge. Sometimes, the right answer is the most straightforward one, and it is for all these reasons that we have created the Compliance Center: to power better processes that don’t require setting up complex systems (or stories).
Do-It-Yourself is the Name of the Game
With the Compliance Center, authorized users benefit from dedicated do-it-yourself capabilities across all channels, so they can adapt to the dynamic changes of their regulatory environment – whether for MiFID or any other regulations: GDPR, PCI DSS,…
Leveraging the omnichannel capabilities of Nice Engage platform which integrates all channels within a single server, and facilitates search and retrieval, the solution enables its qualified users to take direct actions onto their captures. With dedicated workflows, they can extract/lock/delete specific interactions across any channels and thus answer the requests of their customers or auditors promptly. All suspects are already lined up, and actions can be taken directly.
Yet being MiFID II compliant requires organizations to adapt to a dynamic environment and to anticipate changes. By looking beyond the lists of usual suspects and adopting an omnichannel strategy, the can simplify the task at hand for IT, compliance officers and even agents. As such, they ensure that all channels are discoverable, and that the systems used are convergent and future-proof. At NICE, making compliance processes less complex is one of our strategic pillar, as we develop solutions that accompany all stakeholders of the contact center in defining, applying, correcting and monitoring their policies. Looking beyond the “usual suspects” is the winning attitude that has enabled us to power market leading solutions for the past 30 years.
To learn more about how Engage and the Compliance Center can help with MiFID II click here, or schedule a demo to see how our Compliance Center can help you reducing the complexity behind all your compliance activities.