JPMorgan: Bloomberg reporters tapped into our terminal data, too
By MARK DeCAMBRE and KAJA WHITEHOUSE
Last Updated: 11:12 PM, May 10, 2013
Posted: 10:42 PM, May 10, 2013
Wall Street bulls are raging mad at Bloomberg LP.
A day after The Post broke the news of the company’s spying scandal, a second big bank raised concerns that Bloomberg reporters used confidential client data to keep tabs on employees and get the inside track on stories.
Earlier this year, JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s biggest bank, suspected that reporters had gleaned information from Bloomberg’s proprietary terminals to track executives caught up in the bank’s “London Whale” trading blunder.
A person close to JPMorgan said alarms went off when Bloomberg reporters would call the bank and note that certain members of its London trading team hadn’t been logged into their terminals.
A Bloomberg spokesman said that it had no record of a JPMorgan complaint.
JPMorgan’s concerns emerged a day after The Post first reported that Goldman Sachs had confronted Bloomberg brass with allegations of snooping.
Goldman discovered that Bloomberg staffers could determine not only which of its employees had logged into Bloomberg’s terminals but also how often they used certain functions.
The firm, founded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg 30 years ago, admitted yesterday that it was a “mistake” to allow its reporters access to customer data that wasn’t available to its clients.
“Although we have long made limited customer relationship data available to our journalists, we realize this was a mistake,” Dan Doctoroff, Bloomberg’s chief executive and president, wrote in a company-wide e-mail.
At the same time, Bloomberg raced to reassure Wall Street that its reporters never had access to client messages or market-moving information, such as trading portfolios.
“Since our founding more than 30 years ago, the proper safeguarding of customer data has been a central tenet of Bloomberg’s culture.”
A spokesman for the mayor said he hasn’t been involved in the day-to-day operations since he took office.
The company also named veteran executive Steve Ross to a newly created role of client data compliance officer.
Bloomberg LP is the most widely used data and news feed among major Wall Street firms and generates more than $8 billion in annual revenues.
Clients shell out roughly $20,000 annually for the privilege of renting the terminal, which allows users to track reams of data on stocks, bonds and debt.
Legal experts said the snooping could result in lawsuits.
“There may be a case here for theft of trade secrets,” said corporate litigator Richard Feldman of Rosenberg Feldman Smith.
“Goldman could say Bloomberg is doing things that are causing them harm because they are revealing trading patterns or strategies that should be proprietary,” he said.
Feldman said suing could prove tricky if Bloomberg is provided “broad rights” to track and collect clients’ information through licensing agreements.
