Regulator, Banks Reach Sympony Messaging Agreement

New York State's Department of Financial Services said it has reached an agreement with Goldman Sachs , Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Bank of New York Mellon over record-keeping for their Symphony messaging system.

Symphony Communications Services LLC, a messaging and communications start-up, has agreed to retain a copy of the four banks' chat messages on the Symphony system for seven years.

The banks will also store duplicate copies of the decryption keys for their messages with independent custodians.

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.

(Reporting by Rachel Chitra; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)