Optus Business, Citycom Solutions ink two-year comms deal

Optus Business has inked a two-year exclusive partnership with Citycom Solutions to deliver the Citycom Assure platform for an undisclosed amount.

The Citycom Assure platform provides financial organisations the tools to comply with financial regulations relating to the monitoring and capturing of market communications.

Under the agreement, Optus Business will enable Citycom Solutions to support investment and retail banks through Citycom Assure, with real-time integration and reporting of five main forms of trade communication, including mobile, SMS, IM, email, and fixed-line voice.

Citycom Solutions chairman Ian Summerfield said compliance professionals will be able to produce analytics on unusual activities, keywords, and receive alerts in near real-time.

"The solution was designed in response to the increasing regulatory oversight in the financial sector across the globe, and to combat recent insider trading and financial malpractice issues," he said.

According to Optus, until now, Australian banks, asset managers, and hedge funds have faced a "heavy burden" to comply with regulations and risked fines and reputation damage for non-compliance.

"This capability provides compliance and risk managers in the financial services sector with the tools they need to monitor and analyse near real-time communications," said Martin Conneely, Optus Business head of mobility and convergence.

"They can easily capture, analyse, and report voice and other electronic communications and reduce the compliance risk by identifying poor practices early."