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…

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) will begin regulating banks’ and building societies’ day-to-day contact with their customers from 1 November 2009, covering everything from direct debits, payments, instant access and savings accounts through to unauthorised transactions and notification of interest rate changes. (source: www.FSA.gov.uk)

What this means for banks and building societies is that recording data and voice conversations will become a necessity to ensure conflict resolution is swift and producing evidence when required is also easy. Recording of calls is currently on its way to becoming the norm, as will mobile voice recording, but recording of data from a call agent’s screen has not advanced technologically as you may expect.

GemaTech is developing more dynamic ways of recording data and will be a leading provider of resilient data recording in 2010 in response to the increased regulation being encouraged by the FSA.