Markit Launches Chat Room Services for Financial Institutions

Markit has launched new software and services that enable banks and other financial institutions to host and manage instant message chat rooms.

The new software gives financial institutions direct access to the content in chat rooms they host, which will be connected to Markit’s open Collaboration Services network of over 220,000 industry professionals and will be accessible using a variety of messaging technologies.

Collaboration Services is an open messaging network jointly launched by Markit, Thomson Reuters and eight global banks in October 2013, which enables financial market professionals to send instant messages and use chat rooms securely across disparate messaging platforms. The new chat room software uses standard protocols that are compatible with active and passive compliance software and e-discovery tools.

In addition, the new service gives firms complete control over information security for the chat rooms. Through Markit’s Collaboration Services Directory, firms can verify the identity of all chat room participants, prior to and during sessions, and control access to chat rooms.

“Instant messaging is core to how business gets done on Wall Street and technology that enables people using different platforms to access the same chat room can make a range of front and back office processes more efficient,” says Kevin McPartland, head of market structure and technology research at Greenwich Associates. “At the same time, new ways to give compliance and risk officers greater control over who has access to chat rooms, and what is being said, should be welcomed by the industry.”

“Use of chat rooms has been scrutinized by regulators and the industry, but banning chat is not the answer,” says Andrew Eisen, managing director and head of Collaboration Services at Markit. “Markit’s solution makes it possible to manage chat rooms across federated platforms in a compliant manner, a first for the industry. This means chat rooms will now be accessible to professionals throughout the enterprise and broader industry, regardless of the messaging system they use.”