Understanding What Compliant Microsoft Teams Recording Requires in Financial Services
Originally Published November 9th, 2022 | Updated August 12th, 2025
Written by Lada Kozachok, Marketing Specialist
The shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in Microsoft Teams adoption. But even years later, Teams recording remains essential not because of what happened, but because hybrid work has become the norm. Many employees continue to work remotely or in flexible environments, and Teams is still a central hub for business communication.
Whether it’s video meetings, chats, screen sharing, or calls, interactions on Microsoft Teams are often subject to strict regulatory requirements in specific industries such as financial services, banking and collections.
Compliance with laws such as MiFID II, Dodd-Frank, and the FDCPA enforced by bodies like the SEC, FCA, ESMA, and MAS requires organizations to capture, retain, and produce these communications when necessary.
This ongoing reliance on Teams introduces several challenges.
Organizations must ensure their recording strategies can support hybrid workforces, evolving regulations, and increasing demands for auditability and data access. Teams is now more than a communication tool; it’s a record of business activity that must be preserved with care.
5 Reasons Why Native Microsoft Teams Falls Short for Financial Services
While Microsoft Teams offers built-in recording features, these capabilities fall short of what’s required to meet the stringent and evolving demands of financial regulations.
For organizations in banking, investment services, insurance, and collections, compliance isn’t just about recording; it’s about recording the right way, with governance, auditability, and completeness built into the process.
Here’s where native Teams recording doesn’t go far enough and how that can put financial firms at risk:
1. Limited Modalities and Inconsistent Coverage
Native recording in Microsoft Teams primarily focuses on scheduled meetings and calls, often requiring user action to initiate recording. It does not automatically capture unscheduled or peer-to-peer calls, private chats, screen sharing, or file transfers leaving significant compliance gaps.
MiFID II and Dodd-Frank require complete and continuous capture of all communications that may lead to a trade or decision regardless of channel or scheduling.
2. Lack of Passive, Policy-Based Recording
Teams’ native recording relies on manual start/stop or user permissions. This opens the door for intentional or accidental recording avoidance.
MiFID II mandates always-on, tamper-proof recording that’s policy-controlled and cannot be manipulated by the end user. Native functionality doesn’t support this level of control.
3. No Built-In Legal Hold or Retention Management
Microsoft Teams doesn’t provide built-in features for legal hold, custom retention periods, or immutable storage for recordings.
Regulations like SOX and SEC Rule 17a-4(f) require communications to be stored in WORM (Write Once, Read Many) format for specific durations, and preserved even during litigation or audits.
4. Weak Search, Retrieval, and Audit Trail Capabilities
Finding and retrieving specific communications in Teams is not optimized for compliance workflows. There’s no advanced metadata tagging, indexed search, or centralized audit trail for all user interactions.
GDPR, FINRA, and SEC regulations require organizations to demonstrate accountability and traceability, including access logs, searchability, and full audit trails.
5. No Integrated Transcription or Risk Monitoring
Compliance teams need more than raw recordings they need insights. Native Teams recording lacks automated transcription, keyword spotting, sentiment analysis, and other tools that support proactive compliance monitoring.
Regulations such as Dodd-Frank and MiFID II expect institutions to actively monitor and detect potential misconduct, not just react after the fact.
In short, while Microsoft Teams is a powerful communication platform, its native recording capabilities were not built with financial compliance in mind. Meeting regulatory obligations requires a solution that captures the full communication picture securely, automatically, and in a way that stands up to audits and enforcement.
6 Requirements to Achieve Compliant Microsoft Teams Recording
Basic call recording is no longer enough. To meet the demands of today’s regulatory environment across frameworks like MiFID II, Dodd-Frank, SOX, and GDPR organizations must ensure that their Microsoft Teams recording solution checks several critical compliance boxes. Here’s what regulators expect:
1. Capture of All Communication Modalities
True compliance requires capturing every form of interaction not just voice. That means persistent recording of audio calls, video meetings, screen sharing, chat messages, and file transfers. Gaps in coverage can lead to serious audit failures and enforcement action.
2. Always-On, Tamper-Proof Recording
Recording must be automatic, continuous, and tamper-resistant. Manual start/stop functions can result in missed or manipulated data. A compliant solution should offer policy-based, passive recording that ensures nothing is missed and every communication is preserved securely.
3. Legal Hold and Retention Controls
Compliance tools need robust legal hold capabilities to preserve data beyond default retention periods during audits or litigation. Solutions must support customizable retention schedules, audit trails, and immutability controls to meet industry-specific legal requirements.
4. Advanced Search and Retrieval
It’s not enough to store data you must be able to find and produce it quickly. Solutions should provide indexed search, metadata tagging, and role-based access, allowing compliance officers to locate specific interactions in seconds, not days.
5. Transcription and Compliance Analytics
Regulators expect intelligent insight, not just raw recordings. A compliant system should include automated transcription, keyword spotting, sentiment analysis, and the ability to flag potential risks or policy violations proactively.
6. Secure, Scalable Storage Architecture
Recordings must be stored in a secure, encrypted, and auditable environment with geographic redundancy, access logs, and data segregation. Whether in the cloud or on-premise, storage must meet the highest standards for security and availability.
What is Continuity Capture?
No matter where employees are working on-site, remote, or hybrid – regulated organizations must ensure that all communications are recorded, stored, and monitored in accordance with strict compliance requirements. Microsoft Teams is no exception.
Continuity Capture, developed and offered by Wilmac Technologies, is a cloud-based compliance recording and analytics solution built specifically for platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
Designed for highly regulated industries such as banking, financial services, and collections, it addresses the limitations of built-in recording tools by delivering enterprise-grade security, automation, and oversight.
Unlike traditional recording solutions, Continuity Capture goes further by incorporating AI-powered transcription, sentiment analysis, and compliance monitoring to help organizations meet regulatory requirements, reduce risk, and boost operational efficiency. It captures all Teams interactions – voice calls, video meetings, chat, and screen sharing and ensures they’re retained in a compliant, centralized environment.
With native integration into Microsoft Teams, Continuity Capture enables businesses to confidently adopt modern communication platforms without compromising compliance. And with the only dedicated U.S.-based support team in the compliance recording space, Wilmac Technologies delivers unmatched expertise and responsiveness to support your evolving needs.
Paired with Continuity Replay, Wilmac’s secure archival, governance, and discovery platform organizations gain a complete, end-to-end compliance solution. From real-time capture to long-term retention, audit readiness, and legal hold, this bundled ecosystem gives compliance teams full control and visibility across the entire communication lifecycle.
Why Choose Wilmac as Your Microsoft Teams Recording Partner?
In regulated industries, Microsoft Teams recording isn’t optional, it’s a compliance necessity. But choosing the right partner to deliver and support that solution makes all the difference.
Wilmac Technologies partners with banks, credit unions, investment firms, and collections agencies to ensure that all Teams and Zoom communications voice, video, chat, and screen sharing are recorded, retained, and monitored to meet the most stringent regulatory standards.
Our proprietary Microsoft Teams recording platform, Continuity Capture, was purpose-built for this compliance-driven landscape.
What sets Wilmac apart?
Proactive, U.S.-Based Support
Unlike NICE, Verint, and ASC, we provide direct, U.S.-based support—no global queues or offshore handoffs. Just fast, expert help from people who know your business.
White-Glove Onboarding & Configuration
From day one, we tailor setup and deployment to your exact compliance, technical, and organizational needs.
Ongoing Optimization & Compliance Alignment
We don’t walk away after launch. Our team ensures your recording environment evolves with changing regulations and risk.
End-to-End Compliance Coverage
Paired with Continuity Replay, our solution spans real-time capture to long-term retention, audit prep, and discovery.
The result?
Simpler audits, faster investigations, reduced risk, and a future-proof compliance strategy.
With Wilmac, you don’t just get a recording tool – you get a strategic partner committed to making compliance easier, smarter, and more secure.
