Last Monday, our Malcolm Massey, Neil Foster and Mark Anderson walked around the Globe Hotel after the Bilderberg meeting to see what was on show, and what they found was a conference room with a Thomson Reuters display panel.
The exhibit panel, prominently displaying the Thomson Reuters logo, was titled “Unleashing the Power of Our Integrated Platform in Financial Markets.”
Bilderberg agenda item?
Why would Thomson Reuters advertise to attendees at the Bilderberg conference? It's easy to imagine Reuters advertising at a financial event for City of London traders and casino bank managers, but why politicians or businessmen? What are the chances that the bankers in attendance were not already aware of the impact of Reuters' trading platform?
Was this just an advertisement, or was Reuters giving some kind of presentation? Anyone who saw the room in person definitely left with the impression that Reuters was giving some kind of presentation.
If this is the case, the question arises as to what it means to “unleash power over financial markets.”
Perhaps yesterday's news from Bloomberg gives a hint of what will happen when the Reuters trading platform is unleashed on financial markets, because it seems we are facing yet another global manipulation scandal, perhaps even more significant than LIBOR.
Bloomberg reported yesterday that five whistleblowers who used to work as foreign exchange traders say the $5 trillion foreign exchange market is rigged. They claim that the world's largest banks have been systematically manipulating foreign exchange rates, which are used to determine the value of trillions of dollars of investments and derivatives, with pension funds around the world being the primary targets.
Not surprisingly, as with LIBOR, the centre of this activity was the City of London.
Traders told Bloomberg that banks were using the 60-second trading pause to aggressively trade with clients. “Dealers were colluding with their counterparties to increase their chances of moving rates,” the traders told Bloomberg.
The Financial Conduct Authority, one of the bodies set up to replace the Financial Services Authority, said it was investigating and in consultation with stakeholders.
What platform is used to distribute foreign exchange rates? As with LIBOR, it is none other than Thompson Reuters. The same Thompson Reuters that attended the Bilderberg meetings.
