TechCheck: Possible cure for advisers’ social-networking anxiety

Do you suffer from compliance anxiety? No need to fear: Actiance Socialite is here. The platform, which also operates with Facebook and Twitter, has announced an agreement with professional social network LinkedIn.

The agreement gives Actiance access to LinkedIn’s private application-programming interface.

Customers using Socialite have granular command of more than 150 feature and content controls over the leading social networks, allowing businesses to set custom policies that meet the regulatory requirements of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada and the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority. Socialite maintains compliance whether the user accesses LinkedIn from home, the work computer or a smart phone.

“We are able to archive, monitor and log all activity, from any device. Our customers gain the peace of mind that they will always be compliant,” said Sarah Carter, vice president of Actiance.

Actiance, formerly FaceTime Communications, is used by more than 1,600 organizations globally for the security, management and compliance of social media and unified communications on the web. It can be used with all social networks and instant-messaging platforms, including Cisco, IBM, Skype, Yahoo, Google and Twitter AOL.

For more information, visit actiance.com.

DATA ENCRYPTION

A new data encryption service developed by British Telecommunications guarantees that no one will tamper with your firm’s top-secret files.

BT’s Managed Secure Messaging service, and now Codel’s Digital Notary Service via the BT Radianz Managed Infrastructure platform, follow a message end-to-end over BT private networks or the Internet to make sure that no one tampers with the information. The service, now available globally for banks, clearinghouses, securities depositories and corporate treasurers, is intended to ward off potential hackers and ensure that data are not tampered with en route.

BT-supplied hardware or software gateways at the sending and receiving ends ensure that messages containing files and documents are non-repudiable.

“Hackers aren’t just trying to access financial institution’s data; they are trying to change it into new data which they might use to damage the targeted firm, or seek financial gain,” said José Antonio Martinez, managing director of Radianz and Payments at BT.

BT’s messaging service allows customers to communicate with all of their business contacts, recording each message as it is sent and delivered, and informs both parties that the information has arrived intact.

While BT’s product helps companies connect, the Codel service, now available over Radianz, does a similar job of expanding and securing their networking operations.

BT, a subsidiary of BT Group PLC, has provided communications solutions and services since 1996. Codel, based in Wales, is active in identity, intellectual property, government, the music industry and closed-circuit TV.

For more information, visit bt.com/aboutbt or codelmark.com.

WELLS ADDS DTCC TOOL

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. has added Wells Fargo & Co. to its Loan/Serv Reconciliation Service.

The service automates the processing of syndicated loans. With multiple lenders involved with one borrower, agency/liaison banks have previously had to coordinate thousands of e-mails and paperwork faxes manually.

Loan/Serv allows agent banks and lenders to break down loan details — from commitment and transaction to individual contracts, drawings and fees — with all relevant transaction details.

Loan/Serv already counts Credit Suisse Group, Barclays PLC, Citigroup Inc., The Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Deutsche Bank AG, The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and The Royal Bank of Scotland among its customers.

Almost 3,000 investment funds have linked to the service since its launch in 2008, which represents about 50% of the global syndicated-loan market.

Also, DTCC will pilot a cash settlement service in the current quarter. Cash on Transfer will provide the syndicated-loan market with a first-delivery-versus-payment platform for secondary-loan trading, ensuring that cash settles in time with the change in legal ownership of the asset recorded by an agent bank. It speaks in 50 currencies.

For more information, visit dtcc.com.

TechCheck appears regularly on InvestmentNews.com.