The leader in mobile surveillance technology has acquired Fonetic Trading in order to deliver a comprehensive communications surveillance offering for Capital Markets participants. The firm says the substantial market demand for greater consolidation of the RegTech landscape and recent scandals, including the FCA’s prosecution of a VTB Banker over deleted WhatsApp messages, have encouraged the deal as a logical progression into the wider surveillance market.
Juan Manuel Soto, Chief Executive Officer at Fonetic commented: “We have seen time and time again the financial and reputational damage caused by un-monitored or ignored communications. Fixed-line audio, mobile phones and messaging platforms like WhatsApp are seen as the weak spots in a bank’s surveillance capability, so they are the first to be exploited by bad actors. By pooling our talent and technology, clients will not only benefit from enhanced data integration but also increased the visibility of their trading activity, thanks to a comprehensive suite of communications surveillance and intelligence technology.”
Oliver Blower, Chief Executive Officer at VoxSmart, said: “We have always worked closely with market participants to tackle global regulatory compliance challenges and we’ve seen overwhelming demand for multichannel and multilingual offerings that not only meet the communication surveillance needs of our clients but substantially ease their procurement and supply chain burden. Welcoming the Fonetic team and technology adds to our surveillance pedigree while helping us support institutions that are at the forefront of financial services.”
Fonetic’s Trading business includes a rich suite of multilingual voice and e-comms surveillance and intelligence tools as well as a powerful Trade Reconstruction engine. These new assets offer market participants consolidation of their communications data, while also amplifying their global reach and language coverage. Fonetic will continue operating in the Customer Experience market, as they provide pioneering services for Conversational Chatbots and Voicebots through NLP solutions, serving European and Latin American markets. VoxSmart’s mobile surveillance currently serves over 100 global clients.
