The challenge posed by the growth of social media has exorcised the financial services industry recently, prompting Finra to issue guidance to securities firms and brokers earlier this year on using the medium.

FaceTime says its technology is designed to help organisations like banks meet these new regulatory rules as well as prevent data leakage. The gateway enables organisations to monitor and control how employees use specific features within social media sites; for example, allowing users to only view Twitter messages but not post, update a Facebook status but not play Farmville or post to LinkedIn but not be able to recommend.

In addition, "moderator" controls, allow firms to hold status updates and comments for review prior to posting, ensuring compliance with bodies like Finra and the FSA, which have made clear that social media constitutes electronic messaging and that applicable rules and guidelines must be adhered.

As a moderated user posts a message to Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, the system intercepts it and notifies the user that their content will be posted only upon approval.

Kailash Ambwani, CEO, FaceTime Communications, says: "Individuals and teams within all sizes of organisations are turning to social media to collaborate, often without considering the consequences of collaborating in what is in effect a public place. Even the most diligent of employees can make the occasional error in judgement, which can have serious consequences if not prevented."

The rise of social networking has been highlighted by a recent study of net habits by the UK Online Measurement company. It found that the average Brit spends 22 hours and 15 minutes on the Web a month - up 65% on three years ago - with nearly a quarter of this taken up by social media and blogs.