By now, mortgage lenders know the FFIEC expects them to monitor and analyze their own social media use—and that of their loan officers. But before messages can be analyzed, they have to be understood, and that’s getting harder. The rise of abbreviations, acronyms, and emojis has made what’s being said anyone’s guess. Social messages can be very opaque.

Messages that look like hieroglyphics to the naked eye aren’t necessarily sinister; the character limits for Tweets and SMS messages demand efficient expression. Does anyone remember shorthand? A prized secretarial skill 50 or 60 years ago, variations on shorthand have made a comeback in text messages. Back in the day, the boss was unable to make sense of the notes on their secretary’s steno pad, and today’s mortgage regulators may be unable to decipher the records they require licensees to keep.

Effective monitoring may require sleuthing skills on the part of mortgage companies and their regulators. The Webopedia of shorthand used in texting includes B9 (boss is watching) and BAM (below average mentality). There’s also EWI (emailing while intoxicated), FYEO (for your eyes only), and WIIFM (what’s in it for me?). Trust me, you don’t want a texted conversation between your loan originator and a title company to include “WIIFM” if you’re concerned about RESPA Section 8 anti-kickback compliance.

Moreover, shorthand references to immutable physical and personal characteristics—the kind that may lead to thought of discrimination—are legion: AZN (Asian), DWF (divorced White female), SoG (straight or gay), and so forth.

Maybe the messages most in need of monitoring are the ones that openly say they should be kept secret. The recently jeopardized $6 billion settlement between Visa®, MasterCard®, and a group of merchants, was tainted by messages—some of which said “burn after reading”—between the opposing lawyers. Would abbreviations with similar meanings, like FYEO (for your eyes only) and :-# (don’t tell/secret) have escaped detection?

It’s not just teens with fast fingers using texting shorthand. Different industries have their own expressions. In the mortgage industry, IRLC (interest rate lock commitment), HPML (higher-priced mortgage loan), and HFI (held for investment), have taken hold. A mortgage company may want to scrutinize texts between loan officers and customers that indicate the customer ITS (intends to sue). That kind of message ought to be segregated and retained in the dozen-plus states where lenders have to preserve customer complaints.

Employees know their business email accounts are monitored and sometimes use texting in a bid for secrecy. An SEC judge recently decided two securities traders conspired to commit fraud, admitting in text messages that they knew their attempts to avoid being monitored were sneaky. But even as texting moves under the monitoring umbrella, will the monitors understand the lingo?

And shorthand can (and does) get even trickier. At least BPR (broken promise) is an acronym, condensing a thought into a set of carefully selected letters. Pictures and emojis are a different matter altogether. Take the fisted hand: Is it a threat? A statement of defiance? A gung-ho fist bump? You can look them up, but Emojipedia hasn’t yet achieved the status of Webster’s. I thought the tired face was an indication of unhappiness, but it just means yawning. That one doesn’t go in the complaint file…

Neither FFIEC nor any other regulator has weighed in on monitoring social messages parsed in the emerging language of social communication. I’ve seen it, and its relation to Standard English is tenuous indeed.

The takeaway: Federal regulators recommended monitoring of social media—that was the easy part. Lenders face the much harder job of implementing that recommendation.