Oct 13 (Reuters) - Societe Generale SOGN.PA has agreed
with New York's financial regulator to keep a record of all the
communication by its employees and clients using Symphony
Communication Services LLC's messaging service for seven years.
SocGen joins Goldman Sachs Group Inc (N:GS) GS.N , Deutsche Bank
DBKGn.DE , Credit Suisse CSGN.VX and Bank of New York Mellon (N:BK)
Corp BK.N in signing such an agreement with the New York
State's Department of Financial Services. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N11K4LY
The move follows concerns that certain Symphony features,
such as "guaranteed data deletion", could hinder regulatory
investigations, the department said on Tuesday.
The financial industry has been hit by scandals such rigging
of LIBOR and the prices of commodities including precious metals
using chat messages.
Societe Generale will also store duplicate copies of the
"decryption keys" for their messages with independent
custodians, the department said.
Symphony Communication, set up to provide a messaging system
to rival those by Bloomberg LP and Thomson Reuters Corp
TRI.TO , is backed by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase (N:JPM) & Co
JPM.N , among others.