Wall Street-backed chat company Symphony up and running with new media partners

By Olivia Oran
Sept 15 (Reuters) - Wall Street-backed messaging platform
Symphony Communications Services LLC announced a number of
partnerships with major media companies during a kick-off event
on Tuesday.
Symphony, a lower-cost rival to Bloomberg LP and Thomson
Reuters Corp TRI.TO , is working with News Corp's NWSA.O Dow
Jones to offer news stories in its service and with McGraw Hill
Financial Inc MHFI.N to integrate data and analytics from its
S&P Capital IQ product. It also announced a partnership with
data company Selerity to provide tailored content to Symphony
customers.
Chief Executive Officer David Gurle hinted at other
potential features for Symphony, including e-mail integration
and real-time screen sharing.
Symphony is also looking at other potential customers
besides banks, such as healthcare, financial technology and
audit companies
Symphony's cloud-based messaging platform looks similar to a
social network system like Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) Inc TWTR.N , with hashtags
and mentions.
The company is trying to differentiate itself from
entrenched competitors by touting its encryption technology to
keep sensitive information safe from hackers. At the same time,
Symphony is working with banks' compliance departments so that
messages could be turned over to regulators if needed for
potential Wall Street investigations.
Symphony's launch comes just one day after New York State's
Department of Financial Services said it had reached an
agreement with Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) GS.N , Deutsche Bank AG
DBKGn.DE , Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) AG MLPN.P and Bank of New York
Mellon Corp BK.N for record-keeping on the service.
The banks, part of a consortium of 14 financial institutions
that have set up the Symphony service, have agreed to retain a
copy of their chat messages for seven years.
That agreement is a "landmark which validates Symphony's
security and compliance model," Gurle said, adding that the
company was also speaking to other U.S. and foreign regulators.
Symphony is available to businesses with more than 50 users
for $15 per user per month. Smaller businesses and individuals
can use the tool for free.