If Instant Bloomberg is banned, it might also mean the end of something that seems to be much more rampant than the fraudulent manipulating of markets: using the chats to flirt.
The casual convenience, paired with the paper trail left behind, is a concern for firms and an easy target for regulators.
Useful as the service is for busy traders, banks are worried about employees using Instant Bloomberg chatrooms to manipulate markets or share information with outside firms. The instant messaging system, known as Instant Bloomberg, has become a sore spot for many financial institutions, and earlier this week, some of the world's biggest banks announced they were considering limiting employees' access to chatrooms. This summer, Bloomberg News admitted that some of its reporters had used the terminals to snoop on companies and track employees logging in, to advance its reporting. The ability to see when users are logged on at their desks has even been cause for some scandal. By typing in the woman's (mildly unusual) first name and employer, the hedge fund trader from the cab was able to directly message the analyst (provided she was logged on) and could also see her phone number, email address, and employment history. In the late morning, a message popped up in the terminal's proprietary instant messaging service: "How's the rest of your day going." She saw the first name and recognized who it was immediately: the guy from the cab.īloomberg terminals, the big iconic machines that bankers and traders use primarily to track markets and place trades and each of which costs companies over $20,000 per year to rent, also have an internal instant messaging system with which you can find and message anyone else who is logged in - really easily. When she got to her desk, she logged in to her Bloomberg terminal and started to work. She dropped him off first, and a few blocks later, got out at her office building. He said that he worked at a hedge fund, and she shared only her first name and the name of the company for which she worked (both of which she asked not be mentioned here). He obliged.ĭuring the short ride, they exchanged pleasantries, and he asked if she shared cabs often. The tailored suit, she thought, was a sign he was likely headed uptown as well, and so, being cold and late, she sprinted across the street to ask if they might share.
He was about to steal the taxi she thought would be hers. On a particularly snowy morning last winter, a young female research analyst at a boutique investment bank in New York was trying to catch a cab up to midtown when she saw a slick twentysomething guy appear in a suit across the street.
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