Squawk firm leaked secret trading details
The ‘squawk’ firm at the centre of a Bank of england leaks scandal has divulged pieces of market-sensitive information from central banks around the world.
The serious breaches by Livesquawk, which sells its breaking news service to traders at investment banks and hedge funds, could potentially have helped its clients make millions in profit by feeding them crucial information before the rest of the market.
This week it emerged the firm sent a copy of a speech from Bank deputy governor Ben Broadbent to a skype chat, which included a trader, 16 minutes before the embargo lifted.
But the Mail can reveal that Livesquawk published a second speech by a Bank official before its embargoed time.
When it was eventually released to the public, the speech on April 5, 2017 from Gertjan Vlieghe, one of the Bank’s interest rate-setting policymakers, caused the pound to surge by 1.5pc to its highest level since the Brexit vote in 2016. Knowing this secretive information ahead of time, as some Livesquawk customers did, would allow them to place trades based on it.
The Mail can also reveal that former employees at the socalled ‘squawk’ firm claim they were pressured by its editorin-chief and director, harry Daniels, to break embargoes on documents from the Bank of england, the european Central Bank, the Us Federal Reserve, oil producer cartel Opec and more.
Livesquawk strenuously denies this. But documents seen by the Mail show that in 2017 it published on its website the key points of a speech by Janet Yellen, then-chairman of the Us Federal Reserve, at 1.29pm – up to one minute before the embargo was due to lift.
every fraction of a second counts for traders, who can make money from placing a trade even milliseconds before the rest of the market adjusts.
Livesquawk blamed technical errors for embargo breaches.
shortly afterwards it was put into administration, only to be bought by Global news services – of which Daniels is a director. he is still editor-in-chief.
The firm has been booted off the trusted media list of the Bank of england, Office for national statistics, Bank of Canada, european Central Bank and more.
A spokesman for Livesquawk said: ‘Global news services acquired the Livesquawk brand in April 2018, bringing in new leadership and developing the operating model.
‘These allegations refer to a period under previous ownership, however former shareholder harry Daniels strongly refutes any suggestion of historical wrongdoing during this time. Mr Daniels is clear that when a small number of isolated incidents of human or technical error happened over the 14 years he co-owned the business, appropriate action was taken in full co-operation with relevant institutions.’