Call centers have become targets for fraudsters and identity thieves, and now regulators have them in their sights as well.

Consider a loan origination and the amount of disclosures that must be presented to a customer. This may be easily accomplished in a paper environment, as well as online and even mobile. But the telephone presents special challenges.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is taking a hard look at the information customers see when they take out loans, and it is incumbent upon financial institutions as well as other lenders to make certain that customers are given what they need to know, no matter what the channel.

“A large call center might have 80,000 agents,” said Ori Bach, director of solution management, interactions optimization with NICE Systems. “Working two shifts, some of them offshore. How do you make sure every last agent is up to date?”

The key is coaching and training to make sure agents have the information to give to customers, according to Bach. “The regulations are very specific, so the screen an agent sees may say, ‘Please say this.'” The agent will then be prevented from proceeding until a box saying the customer has agreed is filled.

Proper management of calls requires intensive training, and this is made more difficult by frequent staff turnover. In the call center environment, “there is a lot of training, a lot of attrition,” Bach said.

If the scripts are complicated but follow set paths, why not use an IVR (interactive voice response) or automated system?

“Calls are dynamic and may go in unexpected directions,” Bach said. “Banks prefer self-service, but more complex and risky calls tend to require a live agent. And customers often want to reach a live agent. So automation is not always possible.” Or, it seems, desirable. Some customers have a strong preference for live-agent interaction over “robots.”

Calls require monitoring and visibility. “Visibility” here can mean alerts that compliance teams receive when there may be an issue that needs exploration. “If a call ends badly and there is regulatory risk associated with it, FIs must get back to the customers and correct this, as well as document it thoroughly.”

In addition to proper training of agents on the front end, behind the scenes financial institutions need to store records to prove disclosures and relevant documents were presented. This means proper data storage, including what Bach called “meaningful indexing,” so that when a regulatory or internal auditor asks to see records of a certain kind from a certain date, the institution is able to produce them.

The CFPB is doing a very good job listening to customers, Bach said, and of course banks must do this, too. Banks must reach out to customers having problems before complaints become regulatory matters.

“Today there is a shift in focus [at the CFPB] from enforcement of consumer regulations to protection from harm. Consumers must understand the risk of interactions,” Bach said. The CFPB’s focus is on consumer compliance, while other regulators maintain a wider focus and cannot focus as narrowly on the customer experience.

Still, the CFPB has a broad mandate. It works with not just banks but mortgage service providers, auto loan servicers, and payday lenders.

The goal with call center representatives is to deal properly with the call and meet customers’ needs while also following any scripts that may apply, and unless necessary, not to involve a supervisor, which is referred to as escalating the call. Above all, calls should be prevented from becoming regulatory matters. If it is a high-risk call, it should be flagged so that it can be dealt with promptly.

In our multichannel world, self-service channels may be rising in importance relative to live-agent interactions, but the call center is not going away, and as regulatory complexity increases, keeping agents empowered to handle whatever comes up will remain a priority.