Bank of England expects to internal report on audio feed misuse in April
The Bank of England expects an internal report into misuse of its audio feeds to go the bank’s directors in April, after it emerged that hedge funds were able to access a market-sensitive feed ahead of its official broadcast.
Outgoing governor Mark Carney told the Treasury committee today that he expected the BoE’s court — effectively the bank’s board of directors— would receive the report in April.
Carney said that the bank would release “the findings of the report and [the BoE’s] management’s response”, but did not specify when it would be published.
In December, the bank confirmed what it called a “wholly unacceptable” use of a back-up audio feed by a supplier, and said it had reported the matter to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Carney told the committee that the ongoing FCA investigation limited the extent to which he could discuss the leak, but said the probe would also look at those who used the information supplied via the feed.
“We referred [to the FCA] the incident and the parties involved in the incident which would include not just the technical party related to the audio link but the parties who used the information,” he said.
“We’ve also asked the FCA to look at this behavior of market participants relative to their responsibilities under both the FX code and the money market code.”
Carney, who is stepping down as BoE governor later this month, added that the central bank is examining its entire approach to embargoed information after the FCA launched a separate investigation into a media organisation that is alleged to have shared speeches ahead of their scheduled embargo time.
“You can rest assured that we’re looking at our entire approach to these issues… including around embargoed information,” he said.