4 Major Challenges Of Financial Translation and How to Overcome Them

The process of globalization is strongly developed, not only leading to the focus on cultural and social networks but also on economic exchanges and foreign markets. Besides language barriers, you have to deal with the financial rules and regulations of the countries you are approaching which are likely to have some major differences from those of your country. That’s when financial translation services come in handy.

In this blog, we will give you an overview of financial translation services, from its definition to common types of financial documents that need a translation. More importantly, we will discuss 4 huge challenges of translation for financial content and give you some tips to overcome them.

Common Types Of Financial Translation Services

Translating financial content is considered one of the most challenging types of translation as financial translation services has its own set of concepts and vocabulary that necessitates specialized knowledge within economics and finance.

Here are some common types of financial translation documents:

4 Major Challenges Of Financial Translation Services And How to Surpass Them 

Together with an increase in the demand for translating financial papers, there are some big challenges that almost all companies have to deal with when working on a translation project.  Below are 4 common challenges and useful tips for you to overcome them.

#1. Punctuation Rules 

Punctuation rules play an all-important role in translation. Financial translation services require utmost accuracy as it contains many numbers. Just a slight mistake in a number can result in a loss of hundreds or even millions of dollars.

The punctuation rules for numbers in each nation are different. Some countries use dots as a decimal separator while others use commas. For example, 11.50 means 11 and 1/2 in English, but it means 1150 in Vietnamese.

Moreover, the variations go beyond commas and points. Countries also show dates differently. While the date is written as month/date/year in the US, it is written as date/month/year in Europe.

The extensive use of numbers in financial documentation is unavoidable. The way numbers are expressed throughout the world might vary significantly from how they are expressed in your own nation. When localizing financial information, you need to find out the best way to use commas, points, or present dates which are appropriate in the country you are targeting.

#2. Financial Translation Terminology

Getting the terminology correct is one of the most frequent financial translation services issues encountered by linguists. This profession uses highly specific and detailed terminology, making it difficult for individuals without prior knowledge or expertise to grasp.

An in-depth comprehension of the particular financial terminology is necessary. The terminology that is utilized in both the source and target languages must be understood and applied by translators.

Also, the translators must fully comprehend the situation’s background. All the translation can go wrong eventually if it is produced by trying to translate the terminology phrases directly. Or some terms are popularly accepted in some countries but they are presented in different words in other countries, although they have the same meaning.

An example is the term “common stock” (security that represents ownership in a corporation), which is widely used in the U.S. But people in the U.K. know it as “called-up share capital”.

Terminology must also adhere to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). All translated versions are considered to be official versions, thus translators must be up to speed with all the most recent IFRS modifications.

In general, it is crucial for any l10n manager to seek a qualified and experienced financial translation services provider that, in addition to having an extraordinary command of the language of translation, has a thorough awareness of the financial industry and its particular jargon.

#3. Time Constraints

Fast turnaround times have never been more crucial in business than they are now. A higher likelihood of success comes from being more agile than your rivals. Financial statements follow a similar pattern. The timeline is limited.

The majority of businesses will issue their annual reports and financial statements at the same time since both have set publication dates. This entails a tremendous amount of precise and urgent labor for translation agencies. Translators frequently collaborate with a financial reviewer or an auditor to expedite the process.

We advise using CAT tools to help your businesses save the fee and time for the translators as well as in financial translation services. CAT tools will increase the productivity and quality of financial translation services as it recognizes repeated words, phrases, and statements that were translated before and give you the translations stored in the translation memory. That means you don’t have to keep translating a segment over and over again.

Some popular CAT Tools in the market

#4. Confidentiality

Financial documents and reports require high confidentiality since they contain a lot of important information about a company, business, or even nation. That’s why confidentiality is really necessary. When financial translation services are exposed, the company or business will fall into a dangerous situation, even bankruptcy.

To safeguard sensitive information, translators working on the projects are required to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

A non-disclosure agreement is a legally binding contract or agreement that was signed at least between two companies or individuals with the aim to establish a confidential relationship and protect any types of financial translation documents. Two parties agree that information or documents in financial translation services will not be provided for any others. Signing NDAs will also make sure that information is absolutely confidential, simultaneously, preventing competitors from having information from financial translation services.

Another aspect is data security. The way files are handled is a crucial component in ensuring security. Sensitive papers should never be sent back and forth through email. It has never been simpler to hack into an unencrypted email. The most popular target for hackers is email.

An effective approach might be keeping all of your sensitive information through a secured Translation Management system and only you with your team members have access to your files.

Wrap Up

For companies or businesses that are building partnerships with foreign businesses or targeting global audiences, having important financial documents well translated is highly needed. Plenty of challenges must be dealt with when you work with a financial translation services company. We hope by addressing some common challenges and following our tips above, it will be much easier for you to achieve a smooth and quality translation project.

If you are looking for a professional financial translation partner, look no further than GTE localize. With years of experience in handling translation and localization projects in the field of finance, we are confident to bring you the best-in-class financial translation services at the most value-for-money rates. Our team of translators who can handle all major languages in the world is fully aware of the financial regulations and rules of the target markets.

Contact our localization experts and get your project kicked off today!