US Senator Warren Highlights Concerns Over Data Deletion with Symphony Letters
Notes potential conflicts with communications archiving following earlier NYSDFS inquiry.
![elizabeth-warren-cfpb elizabeth-warren-cfpb](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_750_463/public/import/IMG/764/252764/elizabeth-warren-cfpb.jpg.webp?h=9febc805&itok=6aiF9S24)
The letters — sent to the CFTC, SEC, DOJ, FDIC, CFPB and Finra — noted that steps Symphony has taken to prevent external authorities from "spying" on users' messages could also help them evade major enforcement actions, for which the archives would provide potentially crucial information.
"The communications that Symphony will allow companies to hide from ‘government spying' — such as text messages and chat room transcripts — have proven to be ‘key evidence' in many previous regulatory and compliance cases that have uncovered criminal action by Wall Street," Warren said. "If banks are now making this information more difficult for regulators to obtain and interpret, it could prevent these regulators from identifying and preventing future illegal behavior."
The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) launched an investigation into the platform's workflow a few weeks ago, citing similar concerns.
Symphony, which is funded by a consortium including Goldman Sachs and a number of other banks and investment managers, is set to go live with some of its services next month.
"Symphony is designed to meet the cyber-security and compliance needs of financial firms and the use of Symphony does not change regulators’ ability to obtain messages from our clients," the company said in a statement. "Symphony delivers messages to its clients to download, decrypt, and archive, and they are able to provide those messages to regulators just as they would with other compliant messaging systems. Symphony is innovative because of its “end-to-end” security capability that protects communications from cyber-threats and the risk of a data breach—while safeguarding our customers' ability to retain records of their messages."
Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.
To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@waterstechnology.com or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.waterstechnology.com/subscribe
You are currently unable to print this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (point 2.4), printing is limited to a single copy.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (clause 2.4), an Authorised User may only make one copy of the materials for their own personal use. You must also comply with the restrictions in clause 2.5.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
More on Regulation
Northern Trust offers internal fund accounting, data tools to clients
Regulations and a mandate to enhance quality and transparency in a bid to improve the investor experience are pushing buy-side firms to have more oversight of their third-party providers.
EU firms press for faster move to T+1 after smooth US rollout
Following the example set by North America, 70% of attendees at a European hearing on shorter settlement cycles favored a Q4 2027 switch to next-day settlement.
Finra clears hurdle with CAT launch, but several others remain
Two major components of the consolidated audit trail are now in place. But wrangling over the CAT’s future continues.
Bloomberg, industry bodies push back on Cboe’s proposed OEMS rule change
Some industry bodies disagree with the options exchange’s proposal to carve its Silexx OEMS out of the SEC’s definition of an exchange facility and place it into a separate business line.
GenAI: US Fed reveals its five use cases
Internal sandbox used to assess viability and risks; coding and content generation on the agenda.
Zeros and ones: Industry contemplates T+0 as the next step
With the North American transition to T+1 settlement complete, same-day settlement could be the next goalpost set, though skeptics are many.
The IMD Wrap: Déjà vu as exchange data industry weighs its options
Max highlights some of WatersTechnology’s recent reporting on data costs and capacity issues facing the options industry, and asks, haven’t we seen this before somewhere?
FRTB data quality issues persist amid shifting implementation dates
Banks are finding market and reference data challenges posed by the FRTB’s standardized model tricky, compounded by uncertainty over when the regulation will take effect.