Microsoft (MS) Teams has boomed since the world faced the Covid-19 outbreak. Large and small organizations have often switched incredibly fast and thus ensured that the business operations could be continued with home employees. In March, Microsoft said it has 44 million MS Teams users worldwide. A month later in April 2020, this number had risen to 75 million users. Other on-line collaboration platforms, such as Zoom, were also confronted with a gigantic increase in the number of users.
However, organizations are increasingly opting for the use of MS Teams. The first reason for this is the safety of the platform. Zoom, in particular, fell seriously short of safety. Microsoft has demonstrated its commitment to information security through large amounts of documentation on the security measures, technology and encryption implemented to prevent similar problems for Teams users. The second reason is particularly important for financial institutions and that is compliance. Microsoft takes a much more business-oriented approach than its competitors. The company has invested significant resources in the development of an API that emphasizes the importance of compliance incorporation, resulting in a platform that is superior to its competitors for meeting MiFID II and GDPR requirements.
However, we also notice that many organizations mistakenly believe that the built-in recording functionality in MS Teams complies with compliance legislation. However, this is not the case!
Microsoft itself says about this:
Each of the categories entails different requirements for how recordings are initiated, what is recorded, where recordings are stored, who is notified, who controls access, and how retention is handled.
TEAMS INTERACTION RECORDING OVERVIEW
| Convenience | Functional | Org – General | Org – Regulated | Lawful Intercept | |
| Initiator | User | App/Solution | Admin (system) | Admin (system) | LEA |
| Target | Per-call / meeting | Per-call / meeting | Per-call / meeting | Per-user | Per-endpoint / DID |
| Storage owner | User | App | Admin | Compliance | LEA |
| Notification required? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Access Owner | User | App | Admin | Compliance | LEA |
| Retention Policy? | Optional | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Teams provides various capabilities for convenient and functional recording for meetings and live events.
Source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/teams-recording-policy
As you can see, Microsoft distinguishes recording functionality in 5 different target groups. Microsoft’s recording functionality only supports the Convenience and Functional groups. Financial institutions that are subject to MiFID II legislation are referred to by Microsoft as Org – Regulated and can only be recorded using a third party compliance recorder. So if you, as a financial, use MS Teams and the built-in recording functionality of Microsoft, you do not comply with the MiFID II legislation!
Microsoft has established a certification program to provide customers with the assurance that each participating partner’s solution has been tested and verified to provide the quality, compatibility and reliability they expect from Microsoft solutions.
BPS International is well represented with its partnerships. Of the 7 certified suppliers worldwide, we have partnerships with 3 of the larger developers and our employees have been well trained and educated in this.
The following brands:
Feel free to contact us today so that we can work together with you to determine which solution best suits your needs and requirements regarding compliance recording for Microsoft Teams.