Traders listened in to Bank statements on ‘hacked’ feed

HEDGE fund traders have been eavesdropping on the Bank of England’s press conferences before they have been officially broadcast, it was reported last night.

One of the Bank’s suppliers has been leaking an audio feed of press conferences to high-speed traders, giving them a chance to act on comments by Mark Carney, the Governor, before the rest of the world, The Times said.

Statements by the Governor and other senior Bank officials often move the value of the pound and gilt markets. Getting early access to such information – even if it is only by a matter of seconds – can prove highly lucrative for speed traders.

The Bank found that a backup “audio feed of certain press conferences has been misused by a third-party supplier since earlier this year to supply services to other external clients”.

An unnamed supplier had reportedly hacked into the audio feed since the start of the year to provide the service to another company.

That service was then sold on to “high-speed” companies, it is claimed.

High-frequency trading – a tactic prominently used by hedge funds – is a method that uses powerful computer programs to transact a large number of orders in fractions of a second.

The unnamed supplier is reportedly connected to a market service that promises clients an edge over rival traders.

The Bank said it had now “disabled the third-party supplier’s access”.

A spokesman said: “This wholly unacceptable use of the audio feed was without the Bank’s knowledge or consent, and is being investigated further.”