Translation in Financial Services

 Translation in Financial Services

Importance of Proper Translation in Financial Sector

What Kind of Documents in Financial Translation?

Financial translation includes documents of the following kinds.

• Annual Reports

• Balance Sheets

• Business Plans

• Tax Reports

• Cash Flow Statements

• Auditor Reports

• Prospectuses

• Privacy & Security Policies

• Marketing Materials

Emerging Environment

Banks are going digital. People operate bank accounts from the comfort of the homes from different parts of the world. Money crosses boundaries more frequently than people.

Digitization is being used as a marketing strategy. Financial institutions are going digital to woo larger markets. Access to data is essential for the customer. This is giving rise to an accelerated growth using technology.

The range of interaction, artificial intelligence, data analytics and block chain process automation has given rise to a new kind of language, which is formal enough to communicate technical financial information, and casual enough to be comprehendible by the common customer. This phenomenon is an interesting study in translation of financial language. The need for translation AI based interactions is evident. Especially when banks in one country have no national, geographic, or cultural boundaries anymore.

There is greater access to data, consumer as well as corporate. Firms use this data and technology to accelerate growth. The digitization of the environment of financial data also calls for adaptations in the way we translate data, marketing content, as well as financial information. It also affects that way we reach out and interact with clients.

Considering the wide range of interactions we have with clients in the financial markets, the need for financial translation has increased that much more.

Multilingual chat boxes require translation and AI. Localization is essential in AI and similarly phrased questions need to be better adapted towards possible interpretations as well as misinterpretations on the part of the client. The translator and developers have to balance between formal and academic phraseology on the one hand and casual or colloquial style on the other.

The translation in the financial domain requires, more than before, future-proofing our methods, language, and style. Financial statements, reports, websites, banking apps and interactive chat windows are now required almost INSTANTANEOUSLY, as opposed to the past where there was sufficient time and justification for bureaucracy. Today the linguist is a service provider and banks are too. Every retail customer is king and a valuable stakeholder and asset to the financial institutions.

Challenges -Previous & Emerging

Translation in financial matters presents challenges of its own kind. The financial area, like software, is one with constantly emerging with new terminology which in turn arise due to newer concepts in banking and finance. These concepts, practices and ideas do not necessarily have similar ideas in outer markets. In financial markets, we are not only crossing linguistic boundaries, but even boundaries of economic, banking, and financial markets. We are not translating culture but banking ideas.

For example, the term checking account is used in the USA for what we generally known to be a current account in India and the UK. Similarly, different communities use the word remittance and deposit for the same idea. Such terminological difference compound the issue of lexical equivalence in financial translation.

The numbering and decimal systems in Europe and the rest of the world are different. Whereas the UK and other parts of the world use the ‘.’, most European countries use the ‘,’.

From the financial and legal perspective, fluctuating exchange rates present an added challenge.  The values represented in reports sometimes require conversion in local currency – which are constantly fluctuating. It becomes important to make a reference to the date and exchange rates considered. As reports become dated, references to amounts will also undergo a change.

Regulatory differences, legal, economic, and financial environment of either market need to be understood by translator, because that sometimes becomes instrumental in adapting translations.

Financial translation also has legal implications and is a matter of great responsibility and risk. Translators are required to be sensitive to the specific and critical data that they are translating and should make efforts to ensure that such data is not underplayed. It is not only a legal but also a moral responsibility. Sometimes, including accompanying notes may be of help to the reader to pay special attention to an area where the source text or writer may not. Clearly this is not the intended role of a translator, but certainly, there is an added responsibility.

Emerging Expectations

The changing environment has raised the bar for financial translation. Attention to detail, and perfection are expected more than before. There are severe consequences should one fail. Due diligence and checking of documents become necessary.

Translators also need to adapt their style and tone to the audience for whom the translation is meant. When the audience are customers or bank employees or internal consumers, the style is different.  For the purpose of legislations, taxation and audit reports, the style and terminology must be formal and academic.

Reprieve for Translators Today

Luckily, digitization has provided translators with tools for flexibility and speed.  With strides in AI, MT post editing has come as a boon to translators, especially considering the large volumes of translations nowadays. MT eases their work in creating the raw translations and lets translators focus more on other finer aspects such as verifications, key and critical data, and correctness of meaning. It reduces the need for manual and repetitive tasks of writing and typing mundane texts.

MT however cannot replace humans totally. Human intervention in the form of post editing is an ABSOLUTE NECESSITY.

At the same time, new tools such as MT will also present greater challenges for traditional translators who will need to learn and unlearn their ways of working. They will need to drop their fastidious dogmas about translation, pricing, and quality, and will need to reassess their judgments based on the technology available today.

WordPar International is a translation and localization company in Bangalore, India offering a range of financial translation services across the world.