Beginning this coming November, the UK's Financial Services Authority will officially remove an exemption on mobile call recording for the financial services industry. With the new the compliance requirements in place, traders, brokers, dealers, hedge fund managers and other professionals in the financial space will be required to record all of their mobile phone conversations.

Rather than implement a call recording program, some firms in the UK have suggested that they might simply ban the use of mobile phones for work-related phone calls.

The Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers (APCIMS), a trade group made up of 184 wealth management and broking firms, sees the removal of the call recording exemption for the financial industry as a "contentious issue," according to OneStopClick.com.

"It appears that many larger firms have banned employees from using personal mobiles for firm business," an APCIMS spokesperson told the news source in regards to the new compliance requirements, which will go into effect on Nov. 14.

However, the association also noted that many other financial firms have already implemented new call recording policies to continue to allow their employees to converse with clients via their mobile handsets.

"Those still using mobile have augmented their in-house procedures and controls and refined the way in which current recording facilities are used," the spokesperson added, according to OneStopClick.com.

The new regulations, which are designed to protect financial institutions from rogue traders, require financial services firms to record all mobile phone calls, whether sent or received, for a period of six months.

Still, some industry analysts believe that market abuses will continue to occur. Ian Mason, a partner at Baker & McKenzie in London, told Bloomberg (News - Alert) late last year that "people [who] wouldn’t have complied anyway will find ways around the new regulations" by making calls from outside locations.

Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell