5 benefits of translation services in the financial industry

The Translation People are trusted by global leaders for our ability to deliver dependable, full-scale translation in the financial industry.

With the onward march of globalisation and technological advances, accurate translation by specialist translators is increasingly indispensible. Whether it’s user-facing websites or in-depth stakeholder reports, companies in the financial and Fintech sectors need reliable translators to achieve fluent communication to compete on a global scale.

In this blog post we’ll round up five key benefits for companies in the financial industry. After reading you’ll have a better understanding of how your business stands to benefit from specialist financial translation services.

About financial translation

The financial industry plays an integral role in the global economy, through the provision of services to individuals, businesses, and even governments. From banks to insurance companies, and from stock exchanges to cryptocurrency exchanges, players in this industry are responsible for services that underpin a constant stream of economic activity.

Financial translation is the process of ensuring these organisations can communicate effectively with their customer base, whether on a national  or global level. In an industry with an ever-shifting landscape, effective communication relies on extensive experience and up-to-date knowledge of terms, concepts, and definitions. That’s why all of our translations are carried out by translators with demonstrable relevant experience.

This is also a heavily regulated industry, meaning confidentiality, privacy and security are of paramount importance throughout the process. Our financial translation services are underpinned by ISO-accredited systems and online technology, all of which is subject to rigorous protection and regular testing.

Reasons your business might need financial translation

There are many indicators that financial translation services might benefit your business, all of which represent a barrier to expansion and growth if left unaddressed. Before we look at the benefits, here are some pain points to look for in your business:

• You’re struggling to expand: Communicating with stakeholders, clients and partners in their native tongue is a key element of expansion into new markets. If your business finds itself unable to move into other markets, financial translation services may be able to help.
• You’re struggling to communicate with clients: If you have expanded into new territories but find yourself struggling to communicate with clients in those regions, financial translation services can open clearer channels of communication, whether through translating existing resources or advising on the creation of new ones.
• You’re not compliant with regional regulations: Moving into new territories requires complying with regulation in those territories, and demonstrating compliance may require translation of certain documents. An expert financial translator can make the regulatory process far smoother.
• You’re involved in a merger: Merging with a company in another territory is a great way to tap into their audience and reach, but doing so requires the provision of a suite of documents that ensure accurate communication and mutual understanding. High quality translations with a quick turnaround can make all the difference in such situations.
• You’re struggling to communicate internally: As a company expands around the world, the number of languages spoken by its staff begins to increase. If you’re finding that teams in different regions are struggling to communicate effectively, financial translation services can facilitate better communication.
• You need to train people in different regions: Similar to the above, the process of training staff in different regions in the ethos and activity of your business can be greatly improved with the involvement of a translator with relevant industry experience. Their ability to retain meaning and nuance in the translated materials will ensure consistency in understanding.

5 benefits of financial translation services

With the pain points outlined, let’s take a look at the benefits on offer for financial companies who work with a specialist translation agency.

Expanded global reach

Market expansion is the goal of any company, and financial translation services are a reliable way to achieve this goal. When looking to expand beyond domestic markets, it’s likely you’ll quickly come up against a language barrier: by translating marketing materials and other documents into local languages, you’ll be able to interface properly with prospective customers and partners in those regions.

Translating marketing materials is far more involved than generating a verbatim translation. Advertising campaigns need to capture the feel of your business, and to communicate the subtleties contained in marketing copy, slogans, and other communications. A specialist financial translation agency can help your business to capture this nuance, and to communicate it effectively in new regions.

Then, once prospective customers are being advertised to, attention turns to the translation of proposals, contracts, and other documents crucial to the process of bringing them on board. This ongoing need for effective communication throughout a client’s relationship with your business is not to be overlooked: sustainable expanded global reach needs clients who will stick around, rather than being put off by poor communication.

Minimal disruption in workflow

Things move quickly in the financial industry, both on the day-to-day level and in the rate of technological development. In terms of the day-to-day, smooth business relies on effective communication between branches, departments, and individuals, as well as between your business and its clients and stakeholders. Whatever documents are required for this communication need to be translated promptly and accurately to prevent disruption in workflow.

In terms of technological development, the frequent introduction of new concepts and technologies to the financial industry presents a potential stumbling block for companies who do not have reliable translation services in place. Take cryptocurrency or blockchain, for instance: these two concepts brought with them enormous amounts of terminology and technical know-how that businesses must be able to communicate to keep up with the pace of the industry. If your business does not have the means to refine the content of its marketing materials and communication to reflect these changes, it risks falling behind.

Meaning and nuance is retained

Clear communication is essential in the financial industry, whether it’s communicating niche concepts to clients and prospects, as outlined above, or demonstrating regulatory compliance to industry regulators, or anything in between.

We’ve spoken already about retaining the nuance of marketing communications: something not always possible with a direct, verbatim translation. The consequences for getting this wrong are significant, but are unlikely to result in legal proceedings or severe financial penalties. When it comes to accurately conveying information in financial statements, investment reports, contracts, and other high profile documents however, inability to retain meaning and nuance can quickly lead to harsh penalties like these.

That’s why reliable translation from a translation agency with expertise in the field and a clear understanding of any applicable regulatory processes and frameworks is invaluable to businesses operating in this space: it negates  risk of financial penalties, legal proceedings, and potentially worse.

Human oversight for the full translation

We’ve touched on the importance of human involvement already, as a way to utilise expertise and ensure translations retain their meaning and nuance. There are a handful of other benefits to having human involvement throughout the process, though, relative to translation purely generated by software. Here are some examples:

• Contextual understanding: With all translation, but especially in industries with complex language and concepts, context is very important. Humans get the context, whereas software usually doesn’t.
• Cultural sensitivity: An automated translation rarely takes into account differences in idiom, terminology, or other types of nuance between languages. Human translators are able to understand potential barriers, and create translations that avoid them.
• Industry-specific knowledge: Specialist financial translators are always refining their understanding of the industry and its evolving concepts, whereas a translation provided by automated software will not take these things into account.
• Awareness of other moving parts: Plug a document into a piece of translation software and it will give you a translation, but this translation won’t take into account any other aspects of the company’s communication. A human who’s been involved with multiple other projects will have an understanding of brand tone of voice, relevant industry concepts, and more.
• Subjectivity: If a human translator hits an ambiguous section, they can use subjective judgement to determine the most suitable translation. They can also discuss this with the relevant person to find the best translation. Both outcomes lead to a more reliable translation than one from software lacking subjectivity.

Long term cost savings

While financial translation services may initially seem like an unwanted expense, quality translation is insurance against potentially enormous costs later. Whether it’s a properly translated investor report attracting investment that you would otherwise have missed, or a properly translated regulatory document avoiding a hefty find you would otherwise have been issued, investing in quality translations reduces the likelihood of errors, disputes and other complications.

These are crucial considerations: in an industry as fast-moving and important as the financial industry, mistakes can be costly for everyone involved. The damage to your reputation caused by botched contracts, regulatory non-compliance, or one of myriad other issues can be permanent. As can the financial damage caused by fines, litigation, and other steps required to rectify situations.

The importance of a glossary in financial translation

When working on financial translations, a glossary can be crucial in ensuring a high quality outcome. This document, which can include company-specific terminology, helps to ensure consistency of definitions and terminology within and between translated materials, and ensures precision in terminology.

By referring to an approved and updated glossary, our translators can leverage standardised translations, and minimise the chance of misrepresentation.

A glossary is also a reliable way of ensuring client preferences are represented in translated texts: where an organisation has a preferred translation of a word, phrase, or concept, a glossary keeps this preference prominent during the translation process.

Working with a financial translation company

To find out more about the benefits of financial translation to your business, get in touch with our team and let us know about your project. We’ve got offices around the world, and employ translators with in-depth experience in their field to ensure the highest quality translations.

You can find out more about our financial translation services and review our case studies here.