A communication provider for banks, formed to challenge Bloomberg, is planning to hire more than 50 people to keep pace with a coronavirus-fuelled spike in demand — with two-fifths more users logged on in the past three months.

With many financial services employees around the world now working from home, Symphony has experienced a surge in usage. Between 5 January and 22 March, the platform saw a 42% uptick in daily active users, compared with 9% growth over the same period in 2019, according to the company. Messages sent using the tool grew 273% over the same period, while mobile usage has doubled.