As financial regulators increase their scrutiny (and fines), regtech tools can help firms keep themselves compliant at a lower cost.

As US regulators hammer the likes of JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America with a combined $1 billion in fines for failing to properly monitor all employee messaging, comprehensive communications-surveillance tools are in high demand. That’s part of the reason that London-based SteelEye just raised $21 million, with participation from Fidelity International’s venture arm.  

Fidelity International currently uses SteelEye for communications and trade surveillance, while Fidelity Clearing Canada is working on a proof-of-concept to implement the tech for trade surveillance, FISV’s James Devlin told Insights Distilled. 

SteelEye’s surveillance platforms give Fidelity a holistic view that would previously have required several disparate systems and, according to FISV, “helps Fidelity connect the dots.” That single-lens approach means that users’ “data storage requirements are optimized and costs are kept as low as possible” while freeing up time otherwise spent managing multiple systems, vendors, and manual processes, according to SteelEye president of Americas, Brian Lynch.  

SteelEye says it has several other major financial services customers – and 50% of its inbound inquiries over the last six months have included a “secure messaging / WhatsApp component,” Lynch told Insights Distilled  – while JPMorgan, UBS, and Jefferies use Movius for communications monitoring.