Recordings of voice and electronic conversations will surely be at the heart of a new FSA investigation being held into the transactional dealings of Goldman Sachs in the UK, following allegations of fraud worth £650m by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The FSA is set to launch its own investigation into Goldman Sachs with regards to the transaction known as Abacus 2007-AC1 undertaken 3 years ago.
Goldman Sachs have stressed that it had lost $90m on the transaction and insisted that its actions were “entirely appropriate”.
The truth will only be found in documentation recorded during the time of the transaction. In the US regulation states that all voice and data communications are to be recorded including emails, IM messages and SMS texts.
As regulation stands in the UK, only landline conversations referring to transactions are required to be recorded and stored which may make the FSA’s task more difficult.
If after the currently imposed 3 month consultation period the FSA decides to remove the current exemption clause to regulation, financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs will have no choice but to include mobile voice and data recording in the UK.
It will be very interesting to see how the US and UK investigations compare…
Tags: Voice Data Recording FSA
