Financial Translations: Choosing your Supplier
The current economic climate has generated many new opportunities, above all in emerging markets, but competition is fierce from both local and foreign businesses. High quality translation, and multilingual documentation could mean the difference between success and failure in a new market. QuickSilver Translate works with specialised translators who are in touch with all the new developments in the world of finance and insurance. Whether you work with hedge-funds, derivatives or re-insurance, we can meet your translation needs efficiently and effectively, guaranteeing you the highest possible quality in all your financial translations.
• Business plans
• Contracts
• Non-disclosure agreements
• Annual reports
• Balance sheets
• P&L statements
• Auditing reports
• Due diligence documentation
Financial Mistranslations
The importance of working with a language service provider which specialises in the financial sector cannot be overstated. To take an example: bad debt management. Anyone with business experience knows that this expression means the management of bad debts, and that a bad debt is an amount of money owing to a company which is unlikely to be paid.
Yet we have seen this translated into Spanish as “mala gestión de deudas”, which simply means bad management of debts. There is nothing in the English syntax which tells us that the adjective refers to “debts” rather than to “management”. Only specialist knowledge can resolve issues like this, and the world of financial translation is full of them.
It is fundamental that the translator have a comprehensive grasp of current legal terminology in both the source and target languages. If either of these languages are spoken in more than one country, then the translator must be aware of the regionally-specific usages which may (or may not) exist.
Accuracy
Translations of financial documents require an extremely high degree of accuracy and fidelity to the original text: even a slight imprecision could potentially have very serious implications for business decisions. A poor quality translation will often make mistakes on issues such as the difference between a UK and a US billion, a decimal point or a decimal comma, or the conversion of metric to imperial units.
It is considered good practice to check the figures of a financial (or indeed any) document as a part of the translation process, correcting any obvious mistakes there may be, and querying the customer about less obvious ones. A curious consequence of this is that an LSP will occasionally end up with various error-free translations of the same original text, which itself contains mistakes!
Consistent Terminology
As in most industries, many financial companies or institutions will have their preferred terminology and linguistic preferences. As well as style guidelines referring to formatting, numbering, presentation, currencies, etc. For consistency within, and throughout, your documentation we recommend using a Glossary. If you do not already have on, we can build a Glossary for you.
Financial documentation can be very repetitive. For example, annual company accounts always have the same headings. The only thing that changes is the amounts (numbers). So translating new versions of the same document every year can be very inefficient. Unless you use a Translation Memory (TM). We build client-specific Translation Memories for all of our clients. TM software allows you to re-use segments of text translated in the past. If past projects have been managed with a TM, today’s project will be faster. It will also be cheaper and more linguistically consistent.
International Standards
QuickSilver also has experience responding to the challenges faced by companies that outsource to other parts of the globe, both in terms of intra-company coordination, and compliance with different legislative systems.
If your company is within the European Union, you should know that there is a strict requirement to support the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). These standards have established guidelines on how to prepare financial statements and disclose them. There are some differences between the IFRS and its counterpart in the United States, the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). A financial translator must be aware of, and avoid compromising, these standards — this requires a close attention to detail.
Choose a specialist
Quicksilver’s blend of CAT software and professionalism ensures that your content is in safe hands. We only work with qualified, experienced translators and reviewers, all of whom are translating into their native language. In addition, our streamlined workflows will ensure the whole process is smooth and fast.
