During 2022, Singapore overtook Hong Kong to become the third-highest ranking financial centre in the world – behind New York and London – cementing the region’s place as a major global financial hub^[1]. Part of that success is attributable to the fact that Singapore is ranked by the World Bank as the second-easiest place to do business^[2]. So, it comes as no surprise that the country is home to more than 200 banks and a growing ecosystem of more than 1,580 fintech-related companies^[3].

Singapore as a global financial hub

The financial hub now provides employment for 209,000 people and generates 14% of the gross domestic product of Singapore. Much of this growth has been aided by The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which is the city’s primary financial regulator. MAS regulates financial institutions in the banking, capital markets, insurance, and payments sectors.

In recent years, MAS has introduced several initiatives aimed at enhancing Singapore’s competitiveness as a global financial centre. In the five years to 2020, MAS exceeded its target to create more than 20,000 jobs in the sector and attracted $2.56 billion in total fintech investments. It also overhauled visa rules to attract more international workers. MAS now hopes to add a further 20,000 finance jobs over five years.

Such strong growth, of course, requires solid infrastructure. Mobility is key. Employees need to communicate wherever they are on any mobile device in order to keep the wheels of commerce turning. Many financial enterprises in Singapore rely on Singtel to provide exceptional coverage and capacity to their workers.

As a result, Singtel is now the largest mobile network operator in the country, with over 4.1 million subscribers. It also operates internationally with a combined global mobile subscriber base of 770 million customers.

With such a large focus on financial services users in Singapore, Singtel must also ensure that it enables financial sector enterprises to meet their compliance obligations, of which call recording is an integral component. Like most countries and regions, the Singapore financial services industry is directed by a complex regulatory environment.

MAS implements strict compliance requirements for call and digital communications on mobile devices

As well as MAS regulations, Singaporean financial services companies are subject to global financial compliance regulations if they do business with clients from other regions, including MiFID II (Europe) and Dodd-Frank (US). Of course, on top of that the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) governs the processing of personal data.

Mobile devices carry an ever-growing percentage of communication in many regulated industries around the world, meaning that conversations pertaining to financial transactions and/or containing personal data must be recorded and securely stored.

In Singapore, mobile phone recording requirements are implemented by the MAS and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) with all mobile communications requiring to be compliant with the MAS and SGX archiving regulations. These requirements mean that financial institutions must record all communication – including those occurring on personal devices – between their trading representatives and the person instructing the orders and trades for any capital market product in a customer’s account. This is required even if communication does not result in a transaction, and these records should be maintained for seven years.

The requirements of financial organisations when it comes to the archiving of mobile communications are laid out in the Singapore MAS Blue Book Regulations, which states that “financial institutions should record and keep all communications between their tracing representatives and the person instructing customers' accounts for any capital market products for seven years, even if such communication does not result in an actual transaction.”

Regulators also expect firms to keep proper records and documentation for audit and inspection purposes. So how can financial organisations ensure that they adhere to these requirements?

Touch and Singtel for mobile voice and mobile messaging recording

During the last few years, Singtel has on-boarded a growing number of financial services organisations which are using Singtel mobile subscriptions together with Touch Call Recording Service to meet compliance recording requirements. Singtel offers both Mobile Voice Recording (MVR) and Mobile Messaging Recording (MMR), so that no recordings are missed.

Because Touch Call Recording Service is network based, it means that organisations require no costly investment in hardware or software. At the same time, on-boarding is quick and easy. Once a mobile device is connected to the service, calls are automatically recorded – no user intervention is needed. Only authorised administrators can turn the service on or off (from a centralised, intuitive dashboard) meaning that it is essentially tamper-proof.

Once calls are completed, the recording and its metadata are securely stored in the Touch Storage facility, where it is encrypted according to ETSI TR 102 661, and stored across our geo-redundant sites. Access to the files is restricted to authorised personnel within your organisation, with an easy-to-use Web-Portal providing a transparent audit chain.

Touch is a specialist in compliance recording with large and small financial service customers worldwide. We offer a comprehensive service for recording, storing, and accessing fixed and mobile voice calls, and digital communications. Our service can also cover more than different communications channels, including MS Teams and financial enterprise apps such as Bloomberg and Refinitiv Eikon.

To find out how the combined expertise of Touch and Singtel can take your compliance headache away, contact us today.

^[1] https://www.longfinance.net/media/documents/GFCI_32_Report_2022.09.22_v1.0_.pdf

^[2] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.BUS.EASE.XQ?locations=SG&most_recent_value_desc=false

^[3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1296289/singapore-number-of-operating-fintech-firms/