Recording of Communications

Recording of communications is the clause under which a firm records telephone calls and electronic messages that relate to orders, and keeps them. In most regulated markets it is an obligation rather than an option, and consent is given by accepting the terms rather than by a separate question — which is why the clause reads as a notification rather than a request. Its value to a client is evidential and works in both directions. The recordings are what a dispute about an instruction, a confirmation or a refusal is decided on, so they are the reason a telephone instruction is worth as much as a message in the platform. Two details are worth locating: how long records are kept, since retention is defined in the agreement and is not indefinite, and how a copy is requested, since the right to ask for one generally exists within that period and lapses with it. A client who expects to need a record should ask for it while the period is running rather than when the argument starts.