Communication technology is advancing with each passing day, giving users more ways than before to share messages and converse. Similarly, financial frauds and crimes are also on the rise, pushing corporate banks and other financial services firms to incorporate e-communication surveillance monitoring to keep an eye on their team members’ internal and external interactions. Regular monitoring helps a bank mitigate risks and comply with regulatory policies.
With reduced physical interactions, team members have increasingly turned to electronic platforms and devices like email, instant messaging, text messaging, and social media for communication with clients and co-workers. Since increased e-communication results in extra risks, communication monitoring is a way to mitigate the involved risks and help a corporate bank function effectively. Here are some crucial tips that enhance electronic communication surveillance for corporate banks and help them stay vigilant at all times.
- Identifying and Documenting the Communication Platforms in Use
The first step is to determine which communication methods the team members use. If they are unapproved yet, the bank may consider adding them to their approved list or ask the team members to stop using them. Ensure setting up proper communication archives according to the bank’s recordkeeping requirements. Remind the team members of the risks and policies for using unapproved communication methods. Consider firm-wide training and reminders to prevent loss of data through e-communication surveillance monitoring of email accounts, printers, and personal machines.
- Increasing Surveillance Cadence
It’s best to pinpoint and address compliance issues during their initial stages. With an influx of e-communication systems, more frequent reviews might be necessary to stay abreast of the problems. It can be an efficient measure to stay updated with the recent developments, depending on the communication volume. The review schedules must reflect the communication volume and new risks after the global pandemic.
- Re-Evaluating Lexicon and Terminology
The increasing market volatility and work-from-home business environments have brought drastic differences in how people use topics and languages in conversations. Taking time to re-evaluate the words and phrases used for compliance monitoring is essential. The idea is to minimize false positives to capture the entire picture. Corporate banks may also add new or replacement words to address risks at the right time.
- Broadening the Scope of Communication Channels to Monitor
The written conversation is the primary form of communication. Therefore, the corporate bank must monitor not only emails, chat rooms, forums, and IMs but also their social media platforms. Identify the communication mediums with the highest risk of data breach and broaden the scope of monitoring on that channel. Often, team members are unaware that they are breaching their bank’s policies. Therefore, expanding the range of communication across all channels is critical.
- Make Machine learning a Part of Surveillance
Machine learning can automatically differentiate relevant items from irrelevant ones. Add functions like intelligence review, auto clean-up, etc., to minimize human intervention and maximize output. It helps eliminate false positives by eliminating non-risky, junk and unproductive e-communication from a given sample.
Suppose a corporate bank finds it challenging to maintain e-communication surveillance monitoring in the current environment. In that case, it must hire specialists who conduct thorough reviews of e-communications customized to the client’s needs. They can work in ongoing or temporary capacities and review in different languages.
