NICE and IBM Partner to Enable Banks to Adopt Cloud-First Strategy

NICE has announced that it has partnered with IBM and completed a certified integration of its NICE Trading Recording (NTR) solution with IBM’s Cloud Object Storage. Financial services organizations worldwide are under mounting pressure from MiFID II, MAR, Dodd-Frank and FX Code of Conduct to store and retain large volumes of communications, as regulations mandate recording of greater numbers of regulated users, asset classes, channels and devices. The integration of the two technologies means financial institutions can now leverage best-of-breed compliance recording and compatible cloud storage to securely and cost effectively retain, and easily access, growing volumes of financial communications required for regulatory compliance.

Chris Wooten, Executive Vice President, NICE, said, “Regulations such as MiFID II are changing the game in many ways, first and foremost of which is the sheer quantity of communications that need to be recorded. The cloud’s ability to archive this large volume of trade communication data affords increased agility, security, flexibility, time and cost savings, and this is enticing more banks to adopt a cloud-first strategy for their critical data storage needs. We’re excited to partner with IBM to integrate our best-of-breed NTR and Cloud Object Storage solutions so our customers in the financial services sector can leverage the cloud to store and safeguard financial communications vital for regulatory compliance.”

NTR is the industry’s only ‘all-in-one’ compliance-focused trade conversation recording platform used by most of the world’s leading banks and investment firms for recording and retaining trade conversation from turrets, desk phones, mobile phones, and Unified Communications platforms, including Microsoft Skype for Business and Cisco® Jabber®. NTR works in tandem with NICE COMPASS, the company’s unique compliance assurance solution that features automation tools, monitoring dashboards and reports to help financial institutions ensure enterprise-wide compliance with MiFID II and other regulations.

IBM Cloud Object Storage enables firms to scale large unstructured data volumes across on-premises systems as well as public and private clouds quickly and easily, dramatically increasing IT system flexibility and security. At its heart is IBM’s innovative SecureSlice, which combines encryption and erasure coding for greater security and information dispersal which enhances data availability. The platform’s policy enabled lockable WORM vaults enable audio recordings and associated data to be stored in an immutable fashion, ensuring it can’t be modified or deleted for prescribed time periods, an essential feature for highly regulated industries. IBM’s Cloud Object Storage can be deployed as an on-premise solution (private cloud), off-premise solution (public cloud), or hybrid solution.

David Wohlford, Product Marketing Manager for IBM Cloud Object Storage, said, “We are excited about the combined solution with IBM Cloud Object Storage and NICE NTR. We have been working with NICE to ensure our products are supported to help meet customers’ business and regulatory requirements. IBM Cloud Object Storage’s policy based lockable data capabilities and scalable architecture fits nicely with the strength of the NICE NTR solution. Our mutual benefits are one reason we already have a successful implementation at a large financial services account.”

NICE is the world’s leading financial compliance solution provider, serving more than 90 percent of the largest investment banks globally. NICE’s compliance solutions assist customers in the capture of trade conversations and trades, analyzing them for potential risk, and correlating trade conversations with trades for trade reconstruction. The company’s compliance solutions make automated and intelligent holistic trade compliance programs possible and enable FSOs to comply with regulatory requirements, including MiFID II, MAR, FX Code of Conduct, Dodd-Frank and future directives.