5 Ways VIA Can Help You With MiFID II

VIA has implemented a set of solutions aimed specifically at helping firms meet these requirements.

MiFID II aims to:

• Ensure financial products are traded on regulated venues
• Control HFT (High-Frequency Trading)
• Increase transparency of trading for customers and clients
• Limit speculation on commodities with expressed focus on agricultural products
• Protect investors through very strict organisational and conduct-of-business requirements

MiFID II will require firms not adhering to these requirements to change the way they handle electronics communication records and here’s how VIA can help:

1. It’s not just about VOICE

MiFID II, Article 16(7):

“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.”

VIA provides Trader Voice and Unified Communications solutions based on Speakerbus Turret’s and Skype for Business.  A large part of Skype for Business is the ability to send and receive instant messages, screen share, video call and file share both internally and externally.  VIA offers various levels of recording for all modalities of communication with various retention policies.  The recordings can be searched for from a single central platform making retrieval extremely fast and efficient.

2. Wider Coverage

MiFID II, Article 16(7) continued:

“Such telephone conversations and electronic communications shall also include those that are intended to result in transactions concluded when dealing on own account or in the provision of client order services that relate to the reception, transmission and execution of client orders, even if those conversations or communications do not result in the conclusion of such transactions or in the provision of client order services.”

MiFID originally required conversations to be recorded only when they resulted in a trade.  However, MiFID II widens the requirements to include calls that “intended to result” in a trade which generally means capture most if not all conversations from front and back office.  VIA provides a central recording solution that captures all internal and external communications.  Recordings are stored in an encrypted format so they cannot be tampered with.

3. Reasonable steps to record

MiFID II, Article 16(7) continued:

“… an investment firm shall take all reasonable steps to record relevant telephone conversations and electronic communications, made with, sent from or received by equipment provided by the investment firm to an employee or contractor or the use of which by an employee or contractor has been accepted or permitted by the investment firm.

An investment firm shall take all reasonable steps to prevent an employee or contractor from making, sending or receiving relevant telephone conversations and electronic communications on privately-owned equipment which the investment firm is unable to record or copy.”

VIA UC provide Skype for Business that can be accessed from any devices with an internet connection.  The app is readily available on PC, MAC, Smart Phone or Tablet.  We believe that by implementing Skype for Business in this way, wherever relevant communications are made on company devices they will be recorded.  The key phrase is “Reasonable steps”, and by making corporate communication tools that are recorded accessible from nearly everywhere demonstrates that the firm has taken reasonable steps to be compliant.

4. Notification

MiFID II, Article 16(7) continued:

“An investment firm shall notify new and existing clients that telephone communications or conversations between the investment firm and its clients that result or may result in transactions will be recorded.”

VIA UC provides customers the ability to play messages to clients when calling into or being placed on hold.  We record the messages using our team of voice actors, making sure we provide a professional image and first impression of the firm.  In addition to this firms should also send out formal communications to their customers and add information to their existing website.

5. Durable medium

MiFID II, Article 4(63):

“‘durable medium’ means any instrument which: (a) enables a client to store information addressed personally to that client in a way accessible for future reference and for a period of time adequate for the purposes of the information; and (b) allows the unchanged reproduction of the information stored”

The VIA recording solutions encrypt and digitally sign conversations as soon as they are recorded before being stored securely within our UK Data Centres.  All media is backed up for resilience and we offer the ability to produce a Compliance Export report as well as Legal Hold which suspends the deletion process so firms can comply with regulatory requests.

Contact VIA Now!

VIA helps firms become FCA and MiFID II compliant as well as providing the very latest Trader Voice and Unified Communication tools.  With thousands of customer sites already deployed, contact sales for an online demonstration today!