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Sept 14 (Reuters) - New York State's Department of Financial
Services said it has reached an agreement with Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS)
GS.N , Deutsche Bank DBKGn.DE , Credit Suisse CSGN.VX and
Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK) BK.N on record-keeping for the
Symphony messaging system.
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.
They will also store duplicate copies of the decryption keys
for their messages with independent custodians.
The DFS said the four represent all of the banks that it
regulates within the consortium.
The New York regulator has been looking at data deletion and
end-to-end encryption, among other things, as chat room
transcripts and other communications at banks could help uncover
evidence of attempts to rig interest and foreign exchange rates.
Under New York law, banks are obligated to retain records of
their operations. ID:nL1N1021V4
Many on Wall Street view Symphony Communications LLC as a
rival to message systems provided by Bloomberg LP [and Thomson
Reuters Corp TRI.TO , whose clients include bankers, traders
and investors.
Symphony's technology, which was originally developed by
Goldman Sachs, will become available to all potential customers
from Tuesday.
The regulator had earlier expressed concerns over some of
Symphony's features, such as its promise of "guaranteed data
deletion" that could hinder regulatory investigations.
It said it believed the requirements included in the
agreements announced on Monday should apply to all regulated
financial institutions using Symphony in the future.