Bloomberg, Citi launch chat service for currency traders

Bloomberg L.P. Thursday unveiled a new chat service for foreign-exchange traders across various banks, developed in collaboration with Citigroup, reports William Launder of The Wall Street Journal.

Launder writes, “The product is part of a broader effort by banks to take direct control of employee-communications services, at a time when the security of chat platforms has been called into question and the financial industry is looking to reduce its technology costs.

“The chat service, called IB Dealing, allows users to negotiate, make and report trades on a centralized platform. Foreign-exchange traders at more than 100 banks already have been testing the service. Thursday’s announcement represents its formal unveiling.

“Citi worked with Bloomberg to develop the product, which aims to cut operating costs by making banks less dependent on multiple outside communication services.

“The unveiling comes just a week after The Wall Street Journal reported that Citi was moving more of its internal group-chat functions away from Bloomberg to a proprietary internal-messaging service called CitiFXWire.”

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