Wall Street is talking, all right — about dumping Bloomberg’s chat tool.
JPMorgan Chase is the latest bank to mull a new internal chat system to replace Bloomberg’s instant-messaging function amid concerns about a privacy breach, The Post has learned.
The nation’s biggest bank is eyeing a chat service that is still in the early stages of development and is a collaboration between Thomson Reuters and data provider Markit, sources said.
Several big banks are toying with offering their workers a chat function separate from Bloomberg’s terminals for both cost and security reasons.
Such plans could crimp Bloomberg’s bottom line just as the financial news and data giant is trying to assuage concerns about its reporters snooping on clients through the company’s ubiquitous terminals.
Bloomberg customers typically pay $20,000 to rent a terminal that offers a vast array of functions, including the popular chat feature.
Some financial clients, however, are finding that workers are primarily using the Bloomberg terminal for the chat function, leading them to explore cheaper options.
Bloomberg’s spying scandal, in which reporters used the terminals to track when clients logged on and what functions they used, has given firms another reason to ponder their options.
The Financial News reported that Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs are also looking at the Reuters/Markit collaboration chat function, dubbed the Open Federated Chat Initiative.
Sources said the chat function would allow users to instant-message both internally and externally through secure networks.
A person familiar with JPMorgan’s thinking said the idea is in the early stages and that no agreement has been signed. JPMorgan declined to comment.