Why doing nothing is no longer an option in voice data compliance—and what leaders must do next.
If you missed the recent RegTech Insights webinar on managing legacy voice recording transitions, the key message was clear: ignoring legacy infrastructure is no longer a benign oversight – it’s a calculated compliance risk.
From staggering fines issued under SEC and MiFID II regulations to rising complexity in global data governance, compliance leaders are under pressure to act with both precision and speed. Fortunately, the Are Your Legacy Voice Recordings a Compliance Time Bomb? session provided a roadmap for tackling the challenge head-on.
Watch the on-demand session here
From Compliance Constraint to Competitive Advantage
The panel – including voices from Vanguard, Knight Consultancy, and Wordwatch – discussed how evolving regulatory expectations are changing the playbook. It’s not enough to “store and forget.” Modern compliance demands searchable, auditable, and tamper-proof access to interaction data, often across jurisdictions and decades.
Three key takeaways emerged:
- Legacy systems pose a material risk.
Unsupported voice recorders not only introduce operational fragility but actively jeopardise regulatory standing. As Wordwatch’s Head of Product, Chris Reed, noted, “You don’t want the moment you need a system to be the moment it fails you.”
- Data integrity is the new gold standard.
Regulators like ESMA and the SEC now expect firms to preserve metadata, support full trade reconstruction, and prove immutability without modification. Fragmented voice systems simply can’t deliver this level of confidence at scale.
- Migrating legacy data doesn’t have to be painful.
With the right partner and communications governance and archiving solution, firms can ingest millions of legacy interactions in days, not months. Tools like Wordwatch maintain the original media format and offer verified chain-of-custody, eliminating costly re-encoding or data transformation that jeopardises audit trails.
The Risk of Doing Nothing
According to our Cost of Doing Nothing whitepaper, 44% of regulated firms still rely on at least one unsupported voice recording system – despite being required to retain interaction data for up to 10 years or more.
The longer these systems linger:
- The greater the chance of incomplete or irretrievable data during an audit.
- The higher the costs to maintain infrastructure that no longer serves operational needs.
- The more exposed the firm becomes to reputational and regulatory damage.
The Path Forward: Modernisation with Purpose
It’s time to rethink legacy from a position of strategic enablement, not IT plumbing. Leaders across compliance, legal, IT, and surveillance teams must come together around three priorities:
- Consolidation: Migrate legacy and live data into a single, unified records platform to eliminate silos and simplify governance.
- Transparency: Maintain audit-ready metadata and playback for all interaction types—voice, email, chat, SMS—with full traceability.
- Adaptability: Choose a solution flexible enough for on-premise, cloud, or hybrid deployment—aligned to your infrastructure and jurisdictional needs.
Why Wordwatch?
Wordwatch simplifies the complex world of records management for regulated organisations. With our centralised data management, and secure, verifiable storage, we help you stay compliant, reduce costs, and take control of your communications data – now and in the future.
Get the Insights. Lead the Change.
The on-demand webinar is a must-watch for any compliance, risk, or IT leader facing legacy drag. Don’t let outdated systems decide your audit outcome.
