World’s top financial institutions led by Goldman Sachs have made a $66 million capital investment in new company Symphony Communication Services Holdings LLC which acquires Perzo Inc.

Symphony is an open-source, secure communication and workflow platform that aims to improve workplace productivity and connects users to their community. Leading financial institutions have invested in Symphony to develop a scalable, cloud-based and highly secure collaboration platform that will address the enterprise and compliance requirements for the financial services industry.

Through this unprecedented consortium, Symphony seeks to solve an industry-wide communication challenge by providing a platform for communities of financial services professionals to communicate securely and efficiently using compliant standards and end-to-end encryption. The financial institutions partnering to establish this new communication ecosystem include BofA Merrill Lynch, BNY Mellon, BlackRock, Citadel, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, JPMorgan, Maverick, Morgan Stanley, Nomura and Wells Fargo. Symphony expects many of these firms to be early adopters of the platform.

“Symphony responds to a pressing need across the industry for better methods of communication and collaboration,” says Darren Cohen, Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Principal Strategic Investments at Goldman Sachs. “We are pleased by the support from many of the world’s most prominent financial firms, which speaks to the strong desire for a more open, secure, compliant and efficient communication platform.”

(image credit: Spoon Monkey)