Risk management is a huge factor in maintaining financial institutions’ stability, as banks face numerous risks that can compromise many aspects of their business. Banks require strategies like thorough assessments, compliance measures, and mitigation techniques. Financial transcription services address these challenges.
On a positive note, transcription services like Ditto Transcripts can help banks identify trends, create training programs, and ensure compliance with documentation—and I’m here to discuss exactly how we do so.
In this article, you’ll learn how:
- Major risks in the banking industry include market risk, operational risk, liquidity risk, credit risk, reputational risk, and compliance risk.
- Transcriptions mitigate banking risk by providing regulatory compliance records, audit trails, accountability, and historical records.
- Ditto Transcripts meets all required security and accuracy standards for banking transcription. Add that to its flexible and affordable services, and you have a match made in heaven.
Transcription In Banking Risk Management
Accurate transcripts of customer interactions let banks spot red flags from a mile away, like customer dissatisfaction or potential fraudulent financial activities. Analyzing transcription data helps banks assess the effectiveness of their risk mitigation strategies so they can make adjustments as soon as possible.
Accurate transcriptions can also help financial institutions defend their actions during legal disputes, as these documents can serve as evidence. In addition, transcript reviews make it much easier to investigate employees’ compliance with policies/regulations. Through these reviews, banks can identify areas where employees may need more guidance to manage risks better.
Although the relevance of transcriptions in mitigating banking risks can make a broader topic in separate articles, the bottom line is that transcriptions have made it more efficient for financial institutions to implement risk management practices.
Frequently Used Transcriptions in The Banking Industry
Below are some types of transcriptions the financial sector commonly uses.
| Type of Transcription | Description |
| Phone Calls | Transcriptions of customer service calls, sales calls, and internal communication for quality assurance, training, and compliance. |
| Meetings | Transcriptions of board meetings, committee meetings, and team discussions for record-keeping, action item tracking, and decision-making. |
| Interviews | Transcriptions of job interviews, customer feedback sessions, and investigative interviews for HR purposes, market research, and risk management. |
| Presentations | Transcriptions of investor presentations, training sessions, and webinars for easy reference, sharing, and content repurposing. |
| Video Conferences | Transcriptions of remote meetings, client consultations, and online events for improved accessibility, searchability, and collaboration. |
| Earnings Calls | Transcriptions of quarterly earnings calls are provided for investors, analysts, and the media to review and analyze the bank’s financial performance. |
| Depositions | Transcriptions of legal depositions related to banking disputes, fraud investigations, and regulatory inquiries for legal proceedings and compliance. |
| Focus Groups | Transcriptions of customer focus groups and market research discussions for product development, service improvement, and competitive analysis. |
Major Risks in the Banking Industry
Now that we understand transcription, let’s move on to the risks associated with the banking industry.
Market Risk
Market risk affects every aspect of all business, and diversification can’t minimize it. Why? That’s because market risk encompasses factors that impact the financial sector, like recessions, political instability, changes in interest rates, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and more.
This type of risk is inherent in all investments. Market risk includes price volatility, typically measured by the standard deviation of price fluctuations in stocks, currencies, or commodities. Volatility is expressed in annualized terms, either as an absolute value or as a percentage of the initial value.
The exact opposite of this is unsystematic risk. Banks can mitigate unsystematic risk by investing in diversification and hedging their investments with inversely related ones.
Operational Risk
Another major type of risk to the banking sector is operational risk. Anything that compromises business operations, such as failed systems or flawed processes, will typically trigger this risk. One of the more common operational risks is transaction error.
A good example is when a teller accidentally gives an extra $100 to a customer. Although transactional errors can lead to losses, they are still a low-level risk.
However, more significant ones, like cybersecurity breaches, can result in depositors’ funds being stolen from the bank or blackmailing the institution. Such situations cause financial losses and damage the bank’s reputation, and attracting future businesses becomes more challenging for them.
Liquidity Risk
Liquidity risk is a company’s potential difficulty paying its short-term bills because it can only quickly turn assets into cash if it loses a lot of money. This risk affects financial institutions, corporations, and even some investors.
Liquidity risk comes from two main sources: trouble selling assets at normal market prices (market liquidity risk) or trouble getting enough funding (funding liquidity risk). Banks must manage liquidity risk to ensure they have enough cash to cover their immediate obligations.
Credit Risk
Another major risk is credit risk. It occurs when borrowers cannot fulfill their obligations, such as when they default on mortgages, credit cards, etc. Although banks can’t wholly avoid credit risk due to the nature of their business, they can somehow minimize it through strategies.
What strategies? A common one is diversification, which can help banks minimize the impact of an industry’s unpredictable decline. Other ways to mitigate the risk can be lending only to individuals with strong credit histories, engaging with reputable counterparties, and securing loans with collateral.
Reputational Risk
Reputational risk can arise from employees’ actions or the negative impacts of a company’s operations and can quickly escalate into a crisis through information spread on social media.
Even the most well-run companies are exposed to reputational risk, which can’t be taken lightly. It can lead to significant financial losses, management changes, and long-term damage to a company’s image.
Damage control measures can sometimes mitigate the consequences; however, reputational risk can be persistent and last for years, as seen in the ongoing challenges faced by the oil industry due to environmental concerns.
Compliance Risk
This one’s a little heavier than the rest.
Regulatory sanctions, damage to reputation, or financial losses are the compliance risks that may arise when banks fail to comply with laws and regulations governing the sector. Regulatory requirements like KYC, Anti-money Laundering measures, data privacy, and others are all associated with this risk.
Fortunately, compliance risk can be mitigated if banks or financial institutions impose procedures, which may vary from one to another, to ensure that the organization complies with the appropriate laws and regulations. These procedures help address potential compliance issues that may have been overlooked.
Transcriptions for Documenting Risk Assessments and Compliance Strategies
Now that we’ve discussed the major risks banks face, how can transcriptions aid in documenting risk assessments, mitigation strategies, and compliance initiatives to minimize banking risk?
Regulatory Compliance
The banking industry is subject to regulations like the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Laws, which introduced better management practices and increased transparency for banks.
In addition, the Bank Secrecy Act mandates that banks assist government agencies in detecting and preventing money laundering, and there are many more regulations governing the sector.
Incorporating transcriptions in the process can aid with these regulations as it lets compliance officers quickly analyze the content of an audio or video recording to spot potential violations. Transcripts also serve as permanent records that can be referenced during investigations.
Audit Trail
An audit trail provides a chronological record of all activities, decisions, and communications related to risk management and compliance, and transcriptions can be used to capture the details of the risk assessment process.
The audit trail generated by transcriptions can also help prove the bank’s compliance with internal and external regulations, such as the documentation requirements set forth by the Basel Accords or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
In the event of a regulatory investigation, the audit trail provided by transcriptions can serve as evidence to support the bank’s compliance efforts.
Accountability
Transcriptions can capture the discussions, arguments, and conclusions made during risk assessment meetings for a raw record of who said what.
Now, everyone involved in an organization’s risk management can be held responsible for their decisions. Participants may also be encouraged to be more thoughtful in their contributions, knowing their words will be recorded.
Historical Record
A historical record provides a long-term view of the bank’s risk management efforts, allowing for analyzing trends, patterns, and progress over time. Transcripts of past meetings can be reviewed to understand how the bank’s risk assessment methodologies have improved in response to changing industry practices.
The transcripts can also help maintain institutional knowledge by preserving insights or lessons learned even after personnel changes.
Transcribed Communications in Mitigating Banking Risks
Banks transcribe communications to minimize operations, finances, and regulatory compliance risks. They analyze these transcriptions to detect patterns or incidents that may indicate vulnerabilities. Moreover, banks use transcribed communications to monitor employee performance, provide targeted training, and develop case studies to minimize daily work risks.
The process of identifying emerging risks may vary from one back to another. New technologies, like artificial intelligence, can assist analysts in identifying these risks with the help of algorithms, addressing issues before they escalate quickly.
However, it needs to be said that while AI is great for analyzing transcripts, it is not suitable for making transcripts. That’s because AI transcription solutions are only 86% accurate, AT BEST. Instead of addressing your bank’s risks, inaccurate AI-produced transcripts are more liable to expose you to further risks, such as:
- Misinformation Spread
- Loss Of Credibility
- Impacted Decision-Making
- Legal Ramifications
- Ethical Consequences
- Wasted Resources
- Damage to Reputation And Relationships
Choose Ditto For Your Transcription Needs
Don’t settle for AI transcripts when you have the best, most affordable, and most accurate service provider in the market. Ditto Transcripts offer:
- Accuracy: We guarantee 99% accuracy in every transcription project. All you have to do is focus on creating valuable recordings like customer calls, and we’ll transcribe them flawlessly.
- Human Expertise: Our team isn’t filled with robots. We have professional transcriptionists who understand the subtlety of multiple speakers or the banking business jargon. They’ll create transcripts that will reflect the natural flow of your conversation.
- Turnaround Time: We understand time is money, so ensure you deliver your transcripts within the agreed-upon timeframe. You can also choose the turnaround time. You can opt for a rush project or a standard one.
- Security: Recordings aren’t created equal; we understand that some may contain sensitive information. For that reason, Ditto Transcripts is HIPAA, CJIS, and FINRA compliant. You can sleep well at night knowing that your content is secured with us.
- Affordability: We acknowledge that recordings can be highly valuable for organizations and that transcribing them can be costly. So, we offer high-quality transcription services that won’t break the bank—we have options to fit any budget without sacrificing quality.
- 24/7 Customer Service: Humans run our customer service process—not chatbots. We take the time to understand your requirements and will gladly assist you with technicalities or answer any questions for a smooth customer experience.
- Customizability: Our transcription services aren’t just about accuracy and meeting the client’s requirements. Do you need a verbatim transcript that captures every “um” and “uh”? Or do you need a polished version for a blog post? We can modify the transcript to meet your needs and ensure you get exactly what you need to reach your goals.
Enhance Your Bank’s Risk Management with Premier Transcription Services
Witness the full potential of your audio and video content with professional corporate transcription services from Ditto Transcripts. Gain the benefits of improved efficiency, cost-effectiveness, accessibility, and legal compliance with the highest level of accuracy.
Partner with us to enhance decision-making and drive your business forward in this data-driven world. Not convinced? Contact us today for a free trial.
Ditto Transcripts is a Denver, Colorado-based transcription company that provides fast, accurate, and affordable transcription services for businesses of all sizes. Call (720) 287-3710 today for a free quote, and ask about our free five-day trial.
