Fines continue to mount for financial services firms that are failing to capture and record regulated mobile communications for employees on personal devices.
Yet mobile phones with today’s eSIM technology can make such fines easily avoidable. IT can gain direct control over business communications on mobiles – including personal devices – by turning them into endpoints for their Unified Communications platforms.
That means mobile communications can be captured and recorded and corporate identity can be enforced on all business calls and SMS texts.
Yet the fines continue to pile up for firms that fail to follow the rules.
Compliance Violations Add Up
So far this year, US regulators have slapped firms with another $63 million in fines for archiving failures, adding to the already massive tally of fines against firms in the US in the last several years.
US and UK regulations require communications made by financial services employees related to financial transactions to be recorded and archived.
Yet time and again, regulators are finding that financial services firms are allowing employees to use personal devices or “off-channel” applications for these communications and so they go unrecorded.
In the US, the Securities & Exchange Commission intensified its off-channel communications enforcement initiative starting in 2021. The 2025 sweep builds on prior actions, including 26 firms in 2024 fined nearly $393 million.
Media reports indicate that regulatory vigilance is intensifying, with regulators expanding enforcement actions across the full-spectrum of UC, including voice, SMS texting, and mobile.
Ending the Mobile Blind Spot
While mobile phones have been a blind spot for IT control in the past, Tango Extend eliminates this gap in control and compliance.
Tango Extend embeds a business line in a mobile phone with a simple scan of a QR code, turning the phone into a Universal UC Endpoint for the company communications platform. It supports all leading UC platforms including Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex.
The solution enables recording and archiving of business calls and SMS texts on the mobile phone with the same recording solution the company uses for traditional desk phones.
Extend ensures all outbound calls and texts for business come from the company number and carry the company CallerID identity.
Most attractively, Tango Extend allows for simple BYOD use, which addresses the heart of the finance compliance violations.
Employees have a simple way to select business or personal lines from the phone’s native interface, making it easy for employees to stay compliant. Extend keeps the private line entirely separate and secure. And employees need carry only one device.
Contacts can be designated personal or business in the contacts list, so they will automatically use the designated line. That cuts the risk of compliance violations dramatically.
Meanwhile, the employer can cut costs by eliminating redundant desk phones and company-provided mobiles.
Ready to bring mobile communications into your control and make them compliant? Contact us today to learn how Tango Extend can help.
