Businesses nowadays are steadily adapting to globalization. Conducting business with other countries comes with legal obligations that are subject to being overlooked if not analyzed and overseen by an expert in the field. This led to a rise in demand for business document translations. Meetings and conferences that take place in English are sometimes required to be translated into other languages as well. Financial translations hence took the stage and helped eloquently express important business documents in the client’s required language.
What is Financial Translation?
Financial translation refers to a type of technical translation of business documents such as business plans, statements, contracts, and reports from one language to another. Companies using English as their main language would need to consult financial translation experts in order to conduct business successfully with companies primarily using their own languages for their transactions such as companies in Japan and Russia.
The massive demand for financial translation services stems from the increasing number of companies selling their products to consumers or other companies worldwide. This discipline, however, has encountered obscurities as business policies and laws in different countries are very complex and therefore require deep familiarization and experience.
Challenges in Financial Translation
Financial Translation services are crucial for businesses conducting transactions internationally. Ideally, there is no room for mistakes. Taking on such projects, therefore, is very intricate and complex, requiring careful analysis in order to not make even a simple mistake that could lead to dire consequences when the documents are released or sent to the recipients. The company’s image and reputation are put on the line with every mishandled document.
Listed below are some of the common challenges financial translation experts face with every client:
Changes in financial terminology
A lot of financial terminologies don’t have an exact equivalent in other languages. In this scenario, the financial translator has to find a way to explain them. This requires extensive knowledge of the field and an understanding of how businesses work in the country of the global language services, studying even their culture and norms to be able to adapt to the ever-updating financial terms.
Time Pressure
The financial translation industry is often tested by how fast documents get processed without compromising their accuracy and precision. Financial reports and e-mails are usually required to quickly get processed since they have to be disseminated as real-time as possible.
Difference in Rules
The primary thing to consider in translating documents is maintaining context and accuracy. Aside from that, the rules in the banking and finance industries differ from one country to another. This serves as a challenge to the financial translator to distinguish and understand and memorize the different rules in different countries.
This difference in rules tends to be harder for newbie translators since it requires extensive knowledge and rock-solid experience with handling different languages. Mastering one language is still a challenge even to experienced translators since languages evolve along with the culture, norms, and industries.
Financial Translations Best Practices
Financial translations have common best practices in order so translators can avoid rookie mistakes.
1. Having Extensive Knowledge in the Required Field
One of the best practices when it comes to financial translations is learning about the in and outs of your client’s business and the target country for translation. This will help the translation to retain its accuracy since translation involves explaining complicated language and terms that have no direct translation to another language. It also involves knowing the country’s culture and norms to maintain appropriateness with the targeted audience.
2. Keeping Up with Financial Terminology Updates
The financial industry evolves closely with technological innovations. This is accompanied by terminology updates. Being a financial translator means staying up to date with every change in financial jargon per country.
3. Attention to Details
Every financial translator should practice being attentive to the details of every document they are tasked to translate. Information such as names, dates, numbers, amounts, context, and tone of the document should be maintained in every document. It is the responsibility of the translator to make sure that everything is translated accurately, in a specific format that each company requires for the specific country. This also includes taking note of the proper format of dates, names, addresses, and phone numbers.
4. Confidential Data Protection
Business documents are often filled with sensitive data. Financial translators should handle confidential documents from different clients with the utmost security. Leaked information for Important documents might result in conflicts that can lead up to lawsuits.
5. Avoiding Mistakes
One cannot assure perfection in every document translated but each financial translator must always see to it that mistakes are avoided as much as possible. Financial translators should be careful not to make a single mistake when it comes to factual information and details, especially in amounts and dates. In order to avoid mistakes, they must continuously learn and become more knowledgeable than they already are in their field of expertise, adapting to the changes in the required sector. They also have to keep their knowledge up to date since the world of finance and businesses are always evolving.
Avoiding mistakes has now become easier with the help of the availability of knowledge through the internet.
6. Understanding Local Regulations
As aforementioned above, financial translations should avoid errors in documents as much as possible, maintaining context and precision. There are even grammar distinctions from one country to another. Good financial translators make it a priority to understand the local regulations of their client’s targeted country. This in-depth knowledge of a country’s rules for businesses is vital and comes hand in hand with attention to detail. Along with this, translators are expected to always be transparent throughout the process with the clients in order to clarify if ever there are vague parts of the document.
Summary
In summary, financial translations require someone who has the compelling experience and exemplary knowledge in the translation’s required field, language, and targeted country. These best practices help make certified translation services go smoother and make the clients happier with the results, reducing the chance of errors and important information lost through translation.
