Effective next November, investment bankers and traders in Britain will have their cell phone conversations recorded by their employers, in a move by the Financial Services Authority to prevent and prosecute insider trading.
Britain will be the first country in Europe to require the recording of conversations on business cell phones, although other countries have required that all conversations relevant to business be recorded. Companies in Britain will also be required to implement measures to ensure that no business is conducted on private cell phones, which cannot be recorded.
According to The New York Times, a spokesperson for the FSA, Britain’s financial watchdog agency, said that “the rule will affect about 16,000 cell phones issued by financial services firms, which will be required to keep the recorded conversations for six months.”