Thomson Reuters in new chat system to rival Bloomberg

The Open Federated Chat project is backed by Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. It would challenge Bloomberg’s dominance of the instant messaging market, people briefed on the project told Financial News. Bloomberg Chat, pictured, is the main chat tool used by the global financial community and is included in the $20,000 per year cost of a terminal.

The initiative coincides with trouble for Bloomberg over claims by Goldman Sachs that Bloomberg journalists accessed information about its bankers. JP Morgan has requested five years of Bloomberg logs to see what information journalists had access to. Citigroup told traders in its foreign exchange division last week to stop using internal chat groups on their Bloomberg terminals. A spokesman said that the decision was unrelated to any concerns over data privacy.

Thomson Reuters and Markit hope to create a mechanism to connect different chat systems to a central hub. The hub would also incorporate a central directory to help people find other users.

The technology behind the project has been agreed and the initiative is gathering speed, according to one person who said a number of large investment banks had committed to the idea.

A Thomson Reuters spokeswoman declined to comment on the initiative but said the company was “committed to providing open platforms that support connectivity, communication and collaboration across the financial markets community”, Financial News said. ■