Julia LaRoche of Business Insider is reporting that Bloomberg News reporters also used the company’s terminal to glean important information about the actions of JP Morgan bankers during its London Whale trading losses last year.
Bloomberg has come under criticism from Goldman Sachs recently and has agreed to limit with its editorial staffers can see on the terminals.
LaRoche writes, “According to a JP Morgan source, Bloomberg reporters would call JPMorgan CIO traders on their home phone numbers or personal cellphones and say, ‘Hey, I noticed you haven’t used your Bloomberg Terminal in a while are you still with the bank?’
“Bankers at JPMorgan expressed frustration with this to multiple Bloomberg reporters, a source said.
“The source also said that this has happened in broader instances at JP Morgan and not just with the ‘London Whale’ traders. But the ‘London Whale’ event is when it became apparent to JP Morgan that Bloomberg reporters were using their private client information to spy on them.
“‘They were pretty blatant about saying they noticed if you haven’t logged into your Bloomberg or you haven’t been trading in a while,’ a JPMorgan source said.
“The general sense is that the behavior of these Bloomberg News reporters was outrageous.
“As one JP Morgan source said, when you buy a Bloomberg Terminal, ‘You don’t think someone’s tracking your every move.'”
“If you’re not already familiar with the Bloomberg Terminal, it’s basically a computer that’s targeted toward financial professionals so they can message other users, obtain real-time market data, news, stock quotes among many other functions.”
