Secure communication is in the spotlight, or rather the lack of secure communication. Media headlines about security breaches, cyber attacks, and compromised business and personal data are starting to become the new normal… and that shouldn’t be the case. A new level of concern arises when industries that are critical to the economy such as financial services, healthcare or travel are impacted.
The need for confidential, private and secure communication is bigger than ever and choosing the right technology partner is now a strategy and risk business decision made at the highest level of an organization. Symphony is proud to be the chosen partner for secure and compliant communication and markets technology for over 1000 financial firms and corporates around the world, including investment banks, asset managers, exchanges and liquidity centers, and insurance firms.
Legacy technology risk continues to be an important challenge to financial services and our work with clients to tackle it on multiple fronts continues, amongst them trader voice. An increasing appetite for cloud native technology, away from private wires and turrets, is the current trend, as evidenced by a 16% growth in active users, 12% increase of external connections – both year on year (YoY) – as well as record bookings in H1 2025, of Symphony’s trader voice product Cloud9. Pushing for further transformation and portability in the industry, the firm introduced its Cloud9 mobile app at Innovate 2025 – Symphony’s flagship conference, which this year took place in London. The Cloud9 mobile app is currently pending its patent.
As the convenience of using consumer messaging apps for business continues to grow across geographies and industries, Symphony’s federation product for WhatsApp, SMS, and LINE – with compliance and record keeping as part of its foundational design, is also serving adjacent industries such as insurance, and saw a 30% growth of total message volume YoY. While ensuring secure communication is a critical requirement to comply with financial regulation and to keep markets safe, we also see firms looking at the further value of this data and turning it into intelligence to support business decisions, as well as a state of the art client experience.
With the highest level of encryption and security, Symphony Messaging continues to be leveraged by firms such as NatWest Markets, Euroclear Bank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, among many more, to solve critical market and workflow challenges, internally and externally.
The future of regulation was on everyone’s mind in the first half of 2025. The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) was implemented in the European Union, a major step towards strengthening cyber resilience as the legislation outlines: “Market participants, along with critical information and communications technology (ICT) providers, are subject to direct regulatory oversight and must comply with extensive technical, reporting, and governance requirements.” At the same time, the United States Congress introduced the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which is expected to be signed into law by President Trump soon. The Symphony team continues to engage with policymakers as it becomes critical for the private sector to proactively contribute to the understanding of deeply technical and critical aspects such as secure communication and interoperability.
Our Belfast, Northern Ireland office continues to grow, offering global roles to high caliber talent, while the city consolidates itself as a financial markets technology hub, as A-Team Insight reported earlier this year: “Once overlooked, Belfast is now home to a thriving ecosystem of companies that provide high-end financial technology to support the world’s leading financial institutions. With a strong talent pool, government support, and a strategic location, Belfast has emerged as a key destination for fintech firms looking to scale operations efficiently.” Symphony is proud to be part of the city’s growth journey.
Symphony’s sustainability work continues to progress with an annual assessment, reporting and organizational improvements. The firm completed its third corporate sustainability assessment on labor and human rights, environment, ethics and sustainable procurement through Ecovadis with a score of 61/100 (rating: good), published its second United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Communication on Progress (CoP) (2024 report, submitted in July 2025) and its sustainability web page went live.
We were pleased to see our firm and products recognized with important industry award wins, including Cloud9 with the Best Trading Communication System at the WatersTechnology Sell-Side Awards. Waters Rankings awarded Symphony with Best Mobile Solutions Provider, and Cloud9 with Best Trading Floor Communication System Provider. Symphony was included in Harrington Starr’s list of Most Influential Technology Firms of 2025 and TABB Forum NOVA Awards honoree list, which recognizes top innovators across financial markets.
If you have any questions about any of the topics above, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team. You can reach me on Symphony (of course!), LinkedIn or by emailing [email protected].
In 2024, Symphony celebrated 10 years of supporting financial services firms drive innovation, efficiency and security as it evolved into a communications and markets technology firm. With interconnected platforms for messaging, voice, directory and analytics, and a growing community of 1,300+ institutions and 600,000+ users around the world, Symphony has established itself as the most valued financial services community.
The 2020s are an unprecedented decade of disruption and every market participant is either the disruptor…or the disrupted. Today, we stand at the precipice of artificial general intelligence and every well-run organization should be actively seeking to disrupt themselves right now. Symphony has been able to remain almost a decade ahead of disruption by understanding one simple truth—thriving through disruption. This demands three things from your technology: resiliency, stability and flexibility.
Symphony turns 10! Discover how we’re transforming the financial industry through trust, passion, and cutting-edge technology.
