A Solution to eliminate “pause and resume” from call centers

Call center and call recordings have the biggest pains to remaining compliant by the nature of the business, fortuitously there’s a new efficient way to take card payments over the phone that enables call recordings to remain compliant and remaining fully PCI DSS compliant. Using a system such as Syntec’s CardEasy solution, customers key their card numbers in directly using their telephone keypad (DTMF touch tones) rather than reading them out to the agent. As these tones are masked, the agent cannot hear or see the sensitive card information, nor can the card details be picked up in call recordings so there’s no way that the caller’s card details can be identified by anyone with access to the recording.

Integrating a product like this on conversation between customer and agent can be recorded full length, without the white noise and reducing the need to use ‘pause and resume’. This will reduce the human error or any gap in the recording during which a slipup could be made or deception committed. EU business subject to *FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) call recording regulations will remain compliant since the call is recorded from end to end, without disruption.

PCI views on Call recordings

PCI SSC FAQ 5362 –Where technology exists to prevent recording of these Cv value or SaD data elements, such technology should be enabled. If these recordings cannot be data-mined, storage of CAV2, CVC2, CVV2 or CID codes after authorization may be permissible as long as appropriate validation has been performed. This includes the physical and logical protections defined in PCI DSS that must still be applied to these call-recording formats. This requirement does not supersede local or regional laws that may govern the retention of audio recordings.

*What is the FCA?

The Financial Conduct Authority is an independent regulatory body for the UK financial services industry. Funded through subscriptions from 56,000 members organizations, the FCA is licensed by UK government to oversee compliance with all legal instruments relating to the marketing and sale of financial products. Its overarching aim is to deter, detect and prevent abuse and malpractice in the financial markets.

Trends in EU Regulations on call recordings in financial trade

In January 2018, a new EU-wide directive known as MiFID II will come into force. As the UK will still at that point be an EU member, the terms of MiFID II will alter the current regulations on call recording set out in COBS 11.8. At present, the FCA rules on call recording do not cover internal conversations, calls made by back office staff at firms which are unrelated to the sale or marketing of financial instruments, or any communications from investment analysts or retail financial services providers – i.e., firms selling financial advice rather than financial products All of these are likely to be brought under the remit of MiFID II. This will greatly increase the scope of call recording across the industry, requiring previously exempt business to start recording, and essentially demanding firms which already do to record every type of communication.