The Securities Industry Association has entered into a pact with Nynex Corp. giving the New York-based telecommunications company a leading role in helping Wall Street firms build sophisticated global voice and data networks.
The agreement between the regional telephone company and the trade association for more than 700 securities dealers is designed to ensure the availability of compatible communications services to Wall Street firms as they expand into financial centers around the world, officials said.
The alliance, announced at the securities association's annual technology conference in New York last week, comes at time when investment banks are scrambling to upgrade their networks across oceans and time zones, serving the increasing number of investors looking for opportunities in other parts of the world.
The problem has been cutting through the technical and regulatory jungle that building an international voice and data communication system can require, association officials said.
"The financial community will attest that the complexities of setting up international circuits and networks today can be mind-numbing," said John Faccibene, chairman of the association's New York City Voice and Data Network Consortium.
"With differences in technology, cultures, time, and regulations, to name just a few, our members can spend months setting up a single circuit into a single country. And in a business where wasted seconds can translate into millions of dollars of lost opportunity, this is simply unacceptable," Mr. Faccibene said.
The agreement builds on a previous contract giving association members the ability to upgrade their current Nynex services to take advantage of "virtual private line" technology. This service enables businesses to quickly reroute voice and data traffic in the event of a disaster, or easily add network capacity for special applications like video conferencing.
"This state-of-the-art service represents a critical part of the chain by which we can link New York, the hub of this community, with other significant world financial capitals," Mr. Faccibene said.
