Bloomberg Blog

Bloomberg Testifies at Senate Hearing on Proposed Regulations for Derivatives Trading

Bloomberg testified before the U.S. Senate Banking Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment regarding regulations on over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives on June 29th.

As the largest independent trading platform for OTC derivatives, we provided perspectives on provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act, which requires companies to trade credit-default swaps (CDS) and other derivatives products through regulated exchanges called swap execution facilities -- or SEFs.  Given our unique position in the marketplace as a wholly independent player, the Senate Banking Committee asked us to comment on how SEFs should be regulated.

In short, we support the mandatory clearing and post-trading reporting requirements, but have concerns about the way the regulations will be promulgated, as poorly constructed rules have the potential to inhibit market trading flexibility and raise costs for the end user -- which would not fully achieve the important goals set out by the Dodd-Frank legislation.

As with all new regulations, the devil is in the details. As stated in our testimony before the Senate, sophisticated market participants do not really need or want federal regulators micromanaging execution protocols. 

Bloomberg intends to register as a SEF and we are actively engaged with regulators in the rule making process.  Our customer base is evenly distributed amongst buy side and the sell side participants, so we are an independent company not beholden to anyone, nor are we biased toward any particular element of the market.  As an empirically-driven and data-centered member of the financial services community, our goal is to bring transparency and efficiency to the marketplace -- including in the highly complex derivatives market.

To read the Bloomberg testimony, click here, or if you prefer to watch the full Senate hearing, you can do so here.

 

Ben Macdonald is Bloomberg's Global Head of Fixed Income

Dan Doctoroff Named CEO of Bloomberg LP

One of the hallmarks of Bloomberg's 30 year history is the continuity of our senior leadership.  We took another step this week in the evolution of the management of the firm by announcing that Dan Doctoroff will become Chief Executive Officer of Bloomberg LP (effective August 1).  Dan has been President of the company (a title he will retain) for the past 4 years and has been instrumental in the recent growth of the firm and in building and managing our increasingly complex business model.  In adding the role of CEO, Dan will manage all day-to-day operations of the company.  He will still report to Peter Grauer - who has been our Chairman for the past 10 years and will continue to play an active role leading the company.

Bloomberg's success the past several decades has been primarily based on the extraordinary success of the Bloomberg Terminal, which provides financial information, analytics and news to financial professionals around the world.  And, of course, Bloomberg News has become a world leader in business and financial media and an essential contributor to the value of the Bloomberg Terminal.  We've also diversified to include new businesses, including Bloomberg Enterprise Products & Solutions, Bloomberg Data Solutions, Bloomberg Trading Solutions, Bloomberg Tradebook, Bloomberg Government, Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, among others.  The continued success of the Bloomberg Terminal and Bloomberg News plus the addition of these new businesses led to a record financial performance for the company in 2010.  With this streamlined management structure, the company is well-positioned to continue to grow and prosper in the coming years.

And one other exciting announcement:  Tom Secunda, one of the original four founders of Bloomberg LP, was named Vice Chairman of the company.  Tom has been at the forefront of our success over the past 30 years and manages our Financial Products business and Research and Development team.

You can read the press release here.

 

Rick Powell is Bloomberg's Chief Communications Officer

Introducing Bloomberg Queue

Everybody is busy. Always on the go. There's a lot of news out there, including on Bloomberg.com, and people don't have time to read everything. That's a big part of what we think about when determining which features to roll out on our website. While we revealed a new home page about one month ago, we are already adding a hopefully quite useful new tool.

Today, you'll find the Bloomberg Queue on our homepage. (Special shout-out to our launch sponsor Dell. It's the first creative execution in the U.S. of their new broad scale corporate brand campaign - positioning the company as a full-service information technology solutions provider that puts customers front and center.) 

 

   

 
The way this new feature works is simple. You see a story you want to read, but you don't have time right then. Add it to your queue (using the + sign), and read it later. Or, if you've read a story and want to save it, you can do that too and "star" it, or search within your queue for it.

We'll also suggest stories you might find interesting based on what you've already added to your queue. (The more you add, the better we can do with our story recommendations.)

Right now, you can do all of this using a browser, either on your PC, Mac, tablet, or phone.  We are working on giving you the ability to use your queue across any connected device online or offline.  Stay tuned.

 

Eric Steinle is head of product and design for Bloomberg web properties

Bloomberg Law Expands its Web Platform

As the first post about Bloomberg Law, let me take one minute to describe what it is and how it helps lawyers. Bloomberg Law provides primary legal research resources, analytics, news, and company information in one reliable system. Essentially, it provides lawyers what they need to conduct extensive research, build arguments, validate cases, analyze court dockets and just about anything else they need to help their clients and grow their practices.

Today, we are revealing the latest evolution of Bloomberg Law - which was built from the ground up and addresses the integrated legal and business needs of a modern law practice.

Here's an interview we did introducing the new Bloomberg Law enhancements. For more details on features and functionality, see the press release.

Lou Andreozzi is chairman of Bloomberg Law and Larry D. Thompson, PhD, is chief operating officer of Bloomberg Law

Bloomberg Wins Three Loeb Awards for Outstanding Business and Financial Journalism

Earlier this evening, at Capitale in New York City, Bloomberg accepted three Gerald Loeb Awards for outstanding business and financial journalism in the News Services, Beat Reporting, and Magazines categories. 

Winning a Loeb award is a big deal in the world of business journalism. It's a true honor that demonstrates a certain level of expertise to which most aspire.
 

Image from businessjournalism.org

Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief Matthew Winkler said, "As there is no greater measure of respect than to be honored by our peers, we are grateful to be recognized with seven Loeb finalists and three Loeb winners,  all of them advancing the public interest."

Here are the winners:

"Profiting From Fallen Soldiers"
by David Evans
(News Services category)

This series of stories, which appeared on Bloomberg News and in Bloomberg Markets Magazine, reveals how MetLife, Prudential and more than 130 life insurance companies have concocted a scheme to withhold -- and profit from -- $28 billion in death benefits owed to families of service members, government workers and millions of other Americans who had policies.  The stories resulted in almost immediate changes to U.S. government practices.

"Education Inc."
by Daniel Golden, John Hechinger and John Lauerman
(Beat Reporting category)

A series of Bloomberg News articles revealed that for-profit colleges have mushroomed into a $30-billion-a-year industry at taxpayer expense by targeting vulnerable populations -- disabled military and veterans, the homeless, immigrants and minorities -- with misleading promises of low costs, online academic help, and lucrative jobs after graduation.

"End of Life Warning at $618,616 Makes Me Wonder Was It Worth It"
by Amanda Bennett and Charles R. Babcock
(Magazines category)

Amanda Bennett and Charles Babcock stepped into the middle of the health reform debate and spent more than eight months collecting the medical and insurance records associated with the 2007 cancer-caused death of Bennett's husband. The result was a story that turned a personal tragedy into the exploration of the conflict between the deeply human impulse to save a loved one at all cost, and the price to society of doing so.  This story ran in Bloomberg Businessweek and on Bloomberg News.

 

Ty Trippet runs communications for Bloomberg News and Media Group

Bloomberg Businessweek to Launch New Edition in Poland with Point Group

Point Group Business Unit i Bloomberg Businessweek ogłosiły plan wydawania począwszy od jesieni 2011 r.

Oh, sorry, for those who don't read Polish, this says Point Group Business Unit and Bloomberg Businessweek announced plans to publish a Polish-language edition of the magazine starting in the Fall of 2011.

 

 

Michał M. Lisiecki, President of Platforma Mediowa Point (left) and
Jonathan Foster Kenny, Vice President and International Sales Director
for Bloomberg Businessweek (right) elaborate on plans and answer
questions at a press conference in the Bloomberg office in Warsaw, Poland.

 

This is the first new foreign license for Bloomberg Businessweek since it was acquired by Bloomberg L.P. The magazine also has local language editions in Turkish, Arabic, Indonesian, Thai, and Chinese.

Bloomberg Businessweek Polska will be published every two weeks and will feature content from Bloomberg's 2,300 journalists worldwide, including its Warsaw, Poland bureau. It will include locally-focused business and financial content produced by Point Group Business Unit, a subsidiary of Platforma Mediowa Point Group SA.  Michal Kobosko, project manager at Point Group Business Unit, will serve as editor-in-chief.

Here's the full press release.

Patti Straus leads communications for Bloomberg Businessweek

Goodbye Noir

Let's start off by saying that some of you are not going to like what we are about to write:
The Noir version of Bloomberg.com (noir.bloomberg.com), which launched in 2006, is no longer accessible. There were prominent messages on the Noir site providing advance notice of this change.

We know Noir has passionate fans, and we maintained it until we were able to incorporate (in a single view) all of the data and news you loved into the new site. This view lives in a new tab called "Quick." It features data including stock indexes and world markets as well as headlines in one place, just like Noir.

We know it's not the black background some of you are used to, but you can expect us to continue delivering the best news and data so you can get what you need in the least amount of time.

We realize change is hard. We hope you'll embrace it, and we encourage you to check out Quick at Bloomberg.com/quickview.

The Bloomberg.com Team

Top-Ranked Hedge Fund Manager Donald Brownstein Talks Finance at Bloomberg Markets "Movers & Shakers" Breakfast

On Wednesday, June 15, 2011, Bloomberg Markets magazine held its first “Movers and Shakers” breakfast in Manhattan - a series which spotlights important financial leaders in an intimate, exclusive setting with financial and securities industry executives.

The first guest for the series was Structured Portfolio Management’s Donald Brownstein, who was named 2010’s top hedge fund manager in the magazine’s February issue.

He arrived early at Bloomberg Television’s New York studios to be interviewed by host Erik Schatzker before heading up to the 28^th floor dining room. There, he was greeted by Bloomberg President Dan Doctoroff and a fast-gathering group of admirers including CEOs, presidents, managing directors, economists, and heads of investment services from such notable companies as JPMorgan, BlackRock, Fitch Ratings, Oppenheimer, Pershing, and BNY Mellon.

With every seat filled and a magnificent view from the top of Bloomberg's Midtown Manhattan headquarters, Brownstein was introduced by Bloomberg Markets editor Ron Henkoff and publisher Mike Dukmejian. Brownstein held everybody rapt, even taking notes, when discussing some of his favorite topics -- fixing the housing market, foreclosures, interest rates, and solutions to the debt crisis – followed by a provocative Q&A session.

 
 

 Photo by Jin Lee

 

Drew Kerr leads communications for Bloomberg Markets.

 

Enhancements to Bloomberg Businessweek+ iPad App

It's been two months since we launched the Bloomberg Businessweek+ iPad app, and we have an update with some cool enhancements that I think you will like. Thanks to everyone who wrote in with suggestions and improvements - please keep them coming!

 

   

Here are the enhancements:

- More Audio: Added audio to top stories of the week with Ken Prewitt and Pimm Fox discussing top stories with the editors and reporters

- Print Articles: Added ability to print articles wirelessly using AirPrint compatible printers (first business magazine to support this)

- Multitasking: Added ability to listen to audio in the background while browsing the magazine or other apps

- Push Notifications: Added alerts for when new issues are published

- Improved charts: Added 5 year charts and earnings (revenues, EPS, net income) to company information

- Faster downloads of issues and other performance and usability improvements

 

There are more enhancements in the pipeline. Please let us know if you have any suggestions for things we can do better. Email us at feedback@bloomberg.net

Oke Okaro is the general manager and global head of Bloomberg Mobile

Release the ECB's Greek Files

This week, Bloomberg responded to a filing made by the European Central Bank on May 13, 2011 asking the court to block the disclosure of Greek swap information, citing risk to the market.  

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief Matthew Winkler talks about our lawsuit against the ECB to release documents showing how "Greece used secretive financial instruments in the family of derivatives to paper over burgeoning and undisclosed indebtedness from the central bank—a pattern of obscure financing spanning at least half a decade."

Excerpts from the piece below, or if you are a WSJ subscriber, you can view it online.

"The European Central Bank allowed itself to be deceived by a default in the making and now refuses to share with the taxpaying citizens it represents the details of the deception. Secret and opaque financing got Europe into a mess that can only be resolved by the transparency of full disclosure."

Euro sign at Gallusanlage with European Central
Bank bldg in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany

"At a time when European governments and private investors are being asked to contribute to another bailout for Greece, the ECB's secrecy leaves unanswered questions. Money flees secrecy, and opacity engenders suspicion among investors and the public."

"The ECB owes a full accounting to member countries and taxpayers whose money has propped up Greece and may yet be used to support other EU countries. Transparency on this issue is the only way we can make sure a debt crisis never again becomes contagious."

 

 

Ty Trippet runs communications for Bloomberg News and Media Group