The reach of anti-money laundering and transaction-archiving regulations has widened not only beyond banks and other financial institutions. It has progressively taken in new forms of communication, from email to chat to social media.
While artificial intelligence has become prevalent in the accompanying wave of compliance automation, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) requirements, including those for filing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), also extend to the most fundamental of media: voice calls.
Money service businesses, as defined by FinCEN, must retain voice communications for at least five years, especially if those calls involve transaction details or compliance-relevant dialogue. Triggers for SARs include indications of wire fraud, money laundering or account takeovers.
FinCEN rules also intersect with customer due diligence (CDD) and know-your-customer (KYC) practices that compliance and risk professionals must stay on top of.
A solution geared for the financial industry is Cloud9, a cloud-native platform owned by Symphony Communication Services and integrated with Symphony messaging and collaboration capabilities used by over 1,300 institutions. In May it unveiled Cloud9 for mobile.
Cloud9 facilitates secure interactions among traders, brokers and other financial professionals. It captures and archives all voice communications, ensuring that records are maintained for the required retention periods.
Utilizing AI tools, Cloud9 transcribes conversations in real time, enabling the detection of suspicious activity and facilitating SARs when necessary.
Verint, bolstered by the acquisition last year of Intelligent Voice, is another source of AI-driven voice analytics, transcription and other solutions for regulated industries. Typical of alliances that pull together synergistic technology strengths, Intelligent Voice in June 2024 announced a strategic partnership with SteelEye which, they said, “revolutionizes the way financial firms transcribe, analyze, monitor and alert on voice communications through improved accuracy, intelligence and automation.”
VoxSmart’s Oliver Blower: “The market is catching up.”
They noted at the time that financial firms were “under increasing pressure to store and monitor all forms of communications to meet regulatory requirements. Yet, due to regulatory ambiguity, many firms neglect voice transcription, limiting their voice surveillance capabilities.”
AI-voice interaction is key to two products released by SpeakUP, an ethics and compliance systems vendor to more than 600 companies worldwide: SpeakUP Paths for employee risk reporting and compliance monitoring; and AI Voice Agent, which unlike traditional hotlines “ensures instant response, consistent documentation and privacy, all without relying on third-party operators.” The latter is part of the SpeakUp Report whistleblower solution.
Oliver Blower, CEO of VoxSmart, in a late 2024 blog post titled “Why Surveillance Is Still Exciting - Looking Back at a Decade,” wrote: “Increasingly, institutions are realizing the commercial power surveillance technologies can unlock, especially in the front office. This shift in thinking is significant, and it feels like the market is finally catching up to what we’ve always believed: surveillance, when deployed thoughtfully, can become a competitive advantage.
“Nowhere is this clearer than in the accelerating adoption of real-time voice transcription . . . What was once seen as a tool for ticking regulatory boxes is now being reframed as a driver of efficiency, decision-making and even revenue generation.”
Blower pointed to a partnership with integrated trading and communications provider IPC Systems “which puts us at the forefront of this transition . . . rooted in tangible, real-world applications. One of the most compelling examples is the ability to track missed requests for quotes (RFQs), a challenge that has long plagued sales desks.”
VoxSmart’s offerings include mobile capture, communication surveillance, trade reconstruction, data insights and Scribe 2.0 (speech-to-text).
More recently, IPC partnered with compliance automation specialist Open Lake Technology, saying, “Real-time monitoring, detailed reporting, and customizable dashboards empower businesses with data-driven insights to address technical incidents swiftly, optimize telephony usage, and maintain compliance across all communication systems.”
Addressing “off-channel” challenges, IPC separately linked up with messaging compliance innovator LeapXpert, whose platform spans one-on-one and group chats across networks including WhatsApp, iMessage, WeChat, SMS, Telegram, Signal and LINE.
“Telephone networks are already federated; federated messaging is the next major leap in the digital enterprise communication revolution,” commented James Tonks, SVP Partner Development, IPC. “We are excited to be able to harness the proven technology of an experienced service provider to offer a robust, frictionless and enterprise-grade messaging solution with associated governance best practice and regulatory compliance.”
Chris Wooten of NICE
“Unified capture” enhancements announced in March by Theta Lake included Workvivo by Zoom; Real-Time User Governance in MS Teams; and “AI translation and summarization of multi-modal conversations.”
Communications software company Movius jointly in April announced an integration of its MultiLine with NICE’s NTR-X cloud compliance recording and assurance solution, creating “a secure, mobile-first phone experience that allows employees to use their business mobile identity to access voice, SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp and other capabilities without risk.”
“Because of stringent regulations and complexities arising from new communication modalities, remote, distributed workforces are widening compliance gaps and placing financial and energy trading firms at risk for fines and reputational damage,” Chris Wooten, executive vice president of NICE, which is the parent of AML and anti-crime leader NICE ActimIze. “NTR-X mobile communications platform integrations allow regulated users to remain in compliance while using mobile applications to communicate with their customers in the ways they prefer.
“Regardless of location or communication modality, our integration with MultiLine enables regulated firms to cost-effectively manage their entire global recording footprint and support their compliance efforts.”
“This isn’t optional,” says Ramzy Ladah of the Ladah Law Firm. “Brokerages and financial advisers rely heavily on phone calls, and those calls need to be recorded and stored properly. That’s the law now.
“The SEC has made that clear by handing out penalties to firms that didn’t keep proper records. [See, for example, Twelve Firms to Pay More Than $63 Million Combined to Settle SEC’s Charges for Recordkeeping Failures.] These were major players who admitted their mistakes and were scrambling to fix their compliance systems.”
Ramzy Ladah
Ladah regards call recording systems as the most straightforward solution that doesn’t require much manual effort. “With secure storage,” he says, firms can easily pull records if regulators ask for them.
“Compliance software is another effective tool. These programs don’t just store data, they monitor it, organize it, and make reporting easier, turn[ing] what could be a nightmare into a manageable process.” Integrated communication platforms, he continues, “combine voice calls, video meetings, and messages into one system with built-in compliance tracking.”
"The cost of non-compliance is higher than the cost of implementing the right technology," the attorney adds. "Many of these systems are scalable, so smaller firms don’t have to spend like the big guys to stay compliant . . . “The tools are there. It’s just a matter of using them.”
Liam Lafferty, co-founder of Zentive, a software company with a “green business” focus, sees AI-powered speech recognition, cloud-based voice recording and compliance management platforms as most effective for regulatory compliance.
Liam Lafferty of Zentive
"These tools enable real-time tracking, recording and archiving of phone calls and digital communications across various channels,” Lafferty explains. “Platforms that integrate artificial intelligence can not only record calls but also transcribe them, allowing for easier searching and reviewing of communications for compliance purposes.”
Along with the demands of full, multi-channel anti-money laundering compliance comes the need for IT, operational and cybersecurity risk management.
“The shift to risk-based, effective AML/CFT [countering the financing of terrorism] programs is long overdue,” says Taimur Ijlal, a tech expert and information security leader at Proxy Coupons, referring to FinCEN rule proposals. It is “a necessary response to the escalating complexity of financial crime, but it will undoubtedly bring new challenges for regulated firms.”
A role for technology is undeniable: "AI and machine learning can analyze massive datasets and detect suspicious patterns that human analysts might miss,” Ijlal says. “But integrating these technologies isn’t simple. Institutions must ensure that their systems are secure, scalable and compliant with privacy laws. For many smaller organizations, this will be a huge hurdle, both financially and operationally.”
Michael Schmied, a senior financial analyst at Kredite Schweiz in Switzerland, says the FinCEN rules “demand lenders dig deeper into risk assessments, going beyond standard checks to address specific vulnerabilities tied to money laundering and terrorism financing. It’s not just about ticking boxes anymore; lenders must show they actively identify and mitigate risks tied to their clients and transactions.”
This can entail overhauling onboarding processes, updating due-diligence systems, and tracking compliance more dynamically.
Machine learning “can analyze large datasets to detect suspicious patterns in transactions, while platforms like NICE Actimize provide real-time alerts for high-risk activities,” Schmied says. "Blockchain solutions such as Chainalysis enable transaction tracing, making it easier to track funds across borders. I recommend integrating these tools into existing workflows to ensure businesses balance efficiency with thorough risk management.”
Jonathan Feniak of WyomingLLCAttorney.com says the burden is on financial institutions “to prove they understand their unique risks and have strong systems in place to manage them. Many firms will need to invest more in training their teams and refining their processes to keep up."