Symphony‎ Teams Up with Markit to Promote a Collaboration Platform

Monday, 20/06/2016 | 13:04 GMT by Aziz Abdel-Qader
  • Messaging company Symphony partners with Markit to enrich workflow and collaboration ‎across financial services.
Symphony‎ Teams Up with Markit to Promote a Collaboration Platform

UK-based data provider Markit (Nasdaq: MRKT), a global Multi-Asset trading analysis platform which ‎provides users ‎with a range of decision-support tools to assess the quality of their trading activity, ‎announced today a partnership with the Palo Alto headquartered provider for secure collaboration ‎and workflow technology, Symphony Communication Services, LLC, as per ‎an official company ‎statement.‎

The new deal aims to effectively enable richer workflow and collaboration in the financial ‎industry and other sectors through promoting the adoption of a Collaboration Platform as a ‎Service (CPaaS). ‎

As part of the agreement, Markit is developing hosted applications and data delivery services ‎to be made available via the Symphony service. These applications will enable powerful ‎customization of data feeds, Analytics and other workflow.‎

Big Backers

Founded in October 2014, Symphony was formed by a group of the world’s leading financial ‎institutions to operate as an alternative to Bloomberg LP’s terminals. However, the company’s ‎platform attracted regulatory attention in the USA due to its encryption technology, though it was ‎initially a strong selling point.

Symphony’s backers, which include a who’s who of Wall Street ‎financial companies, have been using a variety of secure communications applications and ‎content tools, but after the rise of regulatory concerns they had to strike a deal with New York ‎State Department of Financial Services, the top banking watchdog in the state, which was ‎concerned about record-keeping. The agreement was basically signed with four major banks on ‎the record keeping requirements for the use of Symphony's messaging platform, which is ‎similar to that of a Bloomberg terminal.‎

Commenting in the press release, Brad Levy, Markit’s head of Processing and Loans ‎and CEO of MarkitSERV, said: “As the Symphony network expands, we believe it will ‎become a critical part of the fabric of the financial industry and view it as highly ‎complementary to the spectrum of services provided by Markit. The service offers ‎us innovative ways to collaborate, distribute data and deploy technology apps, such ‎as advanced charting,” ‎

‎“We also plan to weave Symphony into our platforms and products to enable real-‎time collaboration among our customers. In addition, it’s exciting for us to contribute ‎open source code to the Symphony Foundation and develop new ways to access ‎data and improve workflow in partnership with the industry," he added.‎

Expansion in Financial Sector

David Gurle, founder and CEO of Symphony, whose background comes right out of ‎business software central casting with stints at Microsoft Lync, Skype and Thomson Reuters, ‎said: “Markit is a leading and strategic partner as we work toward improving ‎collaboration and streamlining workflows across the financial services ecosystem.”‎

‎“Symphony enables a secure and compliant method of communications for financial ‎services. Partnerships with specialists in information services like Markit allow ‎Symphony to offer more complete workflow solutions to our customers,” Gurle ‎concluded.‎

Markit made headlines earlier this year after having embarked on a number of mergers and ‎acquisitions across a number of different business segments. The financial info specialist announced an ‎‎equity deal with business research provider IHS Inc., in a step that could shake up the finance and ‎industry information sector, currently dominated by Bloomberg and Thomson ‎Reuters.‎

UK-based data provider Markit (Nasdaq: MRKT), a global Multi-Asset trading analysis platform which ‎provides users ‎with a range of decision-support tools to assess the quality of their trading activity, ‎announced today a partnership with the Palo Alto headquartered provider for secure collaboration ‎and workflow technology, Symphony Communication Services, LLC, as per ‎an official company ‎statement.‎

The new deal aims to effectively enable richer workflow and collaboration in the financial ‎industry and other sectors through promoting the adoption of a Collaboration Platform as a ‎Service (CPaaS). ‎

As part of the agreement, Markit is developing hosted applications and data delivery services ‎to be made available via the Symphony service. These applications will enable powerful ‎customization of data feeds, Analytics and other workflow.‎

Big Backers

Founded in October 2014, Symphony was formed by a group of the world’s leading financial ‎institutions to operate as an alternative to Bloomberg LP’s terminals. However, the company’s ‎platform attracted regulatory attention in the USA due to its encryption technology, though it was ‎initially a strong selling point.

Symphony’s backers, which include a who’s who of Wall Street ‎financial companies, have been using a variety of secure communications applications and ‎content tools, but after the rise of regulatory concerns they had to strike a deal with New York ‎State Department of Financial Services, the top banking watchdog in the state, which was ‎concerned about record-keeping. The agreement was basically signed with four major banks on ‎the record keeping requirements for the use of Symphony's messaging platform, which is ‎similar to that of a Bloomberg terminal.‎

Commenting in the press release, Brad Levy, Markit’s head of Processing and Loans ‎and CEO of MarkitSERV, said: “As the Symphony network expands, we believe it will ‎become a critical part of the fabric of the financial industry and view it as highly ‎complementary to the spectrum of services provided by Markit. The service offers ‎us innovative ways to collaborate, distribute data and deploy technology apps, such ‎as advanced charting,” ‎

‎“We also plan to weave Symphony into our platforms and products to enable real-‎time collaboration among our customers. In addition, it’s exciting for us to contribute ‎open source code to the Symphony Foundation and develop new ways to access ‎data and improve workflow in partnership with the industry," he added.‎

Expansion in Financial Sector

David Gurle, founder and CEO of Symphony, whose background comes right out of ‎business software central casting with stints at Microsoft Lync, Skype and Thomson Reuters, ‎said: “Markit is a leading and strategic partner as we work toward improving ‎collaboration and streamlining workflows across the financial services ecosystem.”‎

‎“Symphony enables a secure and compliant method of communications for financial ‎services. Partnerships with specialists in information services like Markit allow ‎Symphony to offer more complete workflow solutions to our customers,” Gurle ‎concluded.‎

Markit made headlines earlier this year after having embarked on a number of mergers and ‎acquisitions across a number of different business segments. The financial info specialist announced an ‎‎equity deal with business research provider IHS Inc., in a step that could shake up the finance and ‎industry information sector, currently dominated by Bloomberg and Thomson ‎Reuters.‎

About the Author: Aziz Abdel-Qader
Aziz Abdel-Qader
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About the Author: Aziz Abdel-Qader
  • 4984 Articles
  • 31 Followers

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