“Together with LeapXpert, we provide a sophisticated, scalable, and efficient solution – so that firms can empower their employees to communicate across a wide range of channels. LeapXpert’s innovative solution, which is deployed in some of the world’s biggest banks, takes the pain out of capturing communications while SteelEye’s Integrated Surveillance platform makes it easier for firms to identify compliance threats, investigate alerts, and report to the regulator.”
SteelEye and LeapXpert have announced a strategic partnership that addresses the industry-wide eComms challenge and enables firms to fully capture and monitor data from the widest range of channels in order to combat the risk associated with the use of unauthorized communications channels.
LeapXpert captures eComms data from all kinds of social media platforms and other apps, including WhatsApp, SMS, Voice, iMessage, WeChat, Telegram, Signal, and LINE.
The firm has also recently integrated with Microsoft Teams to allow financial institutions to message clients through WhatsApp, SMS, and WeChat from within the native Microsoft Teams interface.
SteelEye is an integrated surveillance solution that brings together communications, trades, and orders, as well as news, and market data on a single platform.
The native integration between both firms will see the eComms data captured by LeapXpert flow automatically into SteelEye for compliance record keeping and surveillance.
Mounting pressure to better capture, archive, and monitor communications
Matt Smith, Chief Executive Officer at SteelEye, said: “There is mounting pressure on financial firms to improve how they capture, archive, and monitor regulated communications across their organizations. Together with LeapXpert, we provide a sophisticated, scalable, and efficient solution – so that firms can empower their employees to communicate across a wide range of channels. LeapXpert’s innovative solution, which is deployed in some of the world’s biggest banks, takes the pain out of capturing communications while SteelEye’s Integrated Surveillance platform makes it easier for firms to identify compliance threats, investigate alerts, and report to the regulator.”
Avi Pardo, Co-Founder & CRO of LeapXpert, commented: “We’re excited to partner with SteelEye, one of the leaders in surveillance technology. SteelEye’s distinguished platform offers a futureproofed and scalable solution for financial firms looking to strengthen their communications but also trade surveillance programs. This integration ties into our strategy of partnering with complementary solutions, enabling us to provide an end-to-end solution and rapidly expand our business.”
Brian Lynch, President of SteelEye Americas, added: “The Securities and Exchange Commission is coming down hard on firms who fail to monitor for and capture communications on messaging channels. The partnership between LeapXpert and SteelEye can help firms avoid heavy fines and negative headlines.”
$2 billion in eComms fines on Wall Street in 2022
According to the announcement, in 2022, $2 billion in eComms fines were handed out to Wall Street firms for failures in preventing employees from communicating on channels that were not being monitored for compliance.
Capturing and overseeing communications is a critical way of detecting market abuse like insider trading, unlawful information sharing, or other forms of manipulation.
These are illegal activities that financial services firms are required to monitor in accordance with FCA, ESMA, SEC, FINRA, and CFTC rules.
Previously, data capture and surveillance solutions for messaging applications like WhatsApp did not exist, and firms opted to ban their use. However, as evidenced by the ongoing communications crackdown, clients and employees often speak via these channels regardless of the bans imposed.
