Playing basketball. Running marathons. Climbing mountains. Working out. Whatever our athletic prowess might be, for years now Nike has been telling us to ‘Just Do It’. Nike products help us presumably do whatever ‘it’ is better, faster, more comfortably. With new regulations in place from Dodd-Frank, MiFID II and others around the world, it’s time for trading firms to apply the famous Nike slogan to voice recording, too.

Regardless of whether its OTC derivatives, FX, or SWAPS; buy-side or sell-side – whatever aspect of trading you’re in – compliance today means being able to track and reconstruct every component of the trade. A good VR system is a necessity; not just an option. So let’s make the most of 2015 by making the most of voice recording. Turn VR into a competitive advantage with systems that include speech analytics.

But what are speech analytics? Speech analytics entails analyzing recorded calls to gather information, brings structure to customer interactions and exposes information buried in a customer contact or data center within an enterprise. Although it often includes elements of automatic speech recognition, it may also include analysis of:

• Topics discussed
• Emotional character of the speech
• The amount and locations of speech versus non-speech, or periods of silence.

Companies that take a proactive stance on implementing voice recording systems with strong speech analytics capabilities will find that the benefits quickly add value to its overall operations. Speech analytics can:

• Help put firms on good terms with regulators as it demonstrates you are using the best available technologies to make sure your traders and support teams follow guidelines.
• Reduce operational and reputational risk by providing immediate access to all your calls and finding the ones that put your firm at risk.
• Find targeted trades in minimal time and integrate with structured surveillance technologies.
• Analyze calls from a third party platform.

With regulators taking an increasingly tougher line against firms failing to comply with new trading requirements, it behooves those in the industry to explore their advanced technology VR opportunities. If we all “Just Do It” with the new VR products that are available today we can be much better, faster, more comfortable with being compliant, too.