The Messaging Connection

This article was contributed by Thomson Reuters Exchange, a robust forum for dialogue, where ideas, insights, and information, are shared across the global financial ecosystem.

Opening up instant messaging communications across the financial community sounds like a bold move at a time when the industry is facing increased scrutiny, but it’s a philosophy that we believe has never been more relevant.

Now, more than ever before there is momentum in the industry for greater discovery and accessibility while embracing open messaging standards, in a secure, controlled and collaborative way. Open messaging is becoming the new standard for the industry – it is changing the way the financial services industry communicates.

The ‘open messaging network’ is a cross-industry initiative (of which Thomson Reuters is a founding partner) to federate messaging networks and provide access to a global directory of financial professionals. It connects the buy side and sell side in a secure environment, by allowing instant messaging networks to talk to one another (rather like the consumer messaging network, What’s App). Crucially, for firms looking to save costs, this open network philosophy provides the opportunity to leverage their existing infrastructure and tap into communities which were previously ‘pay to play’.

For Thomson Reuters, this industry collaboration is an extension of our existing strategy to adopt open technology standards. We already offer a ‘Chat to email’ capability that means any user on instant messaging through Eikon Messenger can send an instant message direct to an email inbox. We also facilitate interoperability with other messaging networks where our customers need them, including Yahoo and AOL.

Connecting people, markets and communities

Simply having access to more people is just one dimension, as there is also a growing demand for communities of interest to share new ideas and market insights – in safe, accessible and private forums. Today’s highly competitive and ‘margin challenged’ professionals are looking for new ideas and lucrative opportunities.

Like social networks, communities of ‘like-minded’ individuals formed on the Eikon Messenger network create a vital, virtual marketplace for idea sharing. There are literally hundreds of these all around the world – each of them formed by users on our network.We also offer exclusive access to 21 different Reuters editorial communities. These vibrant, burgeoning communities are owned and carefully moderated by Reuters News and are designed to meet the needs of specific interest groups.

Some are regionally focused, such as Trading China, Trading Mexico and Trading India, and there are asset-class specific and macro-economic focused groups, such as the Global Oil Forum and Global Markets Forum. Not only are these accessible places for people to connect in a controlled environment, but they also provide exclusive access to Reuters News editors and A-list guests, which our clients tell us is extremely valuable. We also take care to maintain the integrity of the groups and permission people into the forums, so there is a high level of control over the membership.

Maintaining flexibility while keeping control and compliant

As ever, there is a need to balance the growing compliance burden with maximum operational efficiency. This applies across the board but particularly to instant messaging compliance, which is increasingly under the spotlight. (Estimates are that the FX market collusion will render fines in the $20-30 billion USD range.)

For more than a decade, we have been working with customers to ensure that instant messaging tools are easy to control, be that at the individual, network or firm level. Our messaging compliance suite and policy management tools were developed specifically for the industry to help firms meet and exceed rigorous standards and provide best practice for messaging protocols. We are constantly innovating in this area– whether that’s developing new tools using our data visualization capability or building controls within the Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger network, such as keyword blocking.

Instant messaging is set to continue to grow exponentially and our commitment to customers is to help relieve the burden and the cost while facilitating discovery and seamless connectivity across the community.

Learn more at: thomsonreuterseikon.com/financial-messaging/

About the Author

Yvette Jackson is the Global Head of Collaboration services for Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk. Yvette is leading a program to connect the financial community using instant messaging and group chat capabilities in an open, innovative and compliant way. In this role Yvette manages an active messaging community of over 200,000 users across 170 countries. Yvette joined the company in London in 1995 and has held a variety of roles in strategy, marketing and product management.

Enjoy this article?
Get your FREE full-copy of Thomson Reuters Exchange Magazine for iPad and Android tablet devices on the Apple App Store, Google Play, or the Amazon Appstore. Or, get your free single article by visiting the Thomson Reuters Exchange Website.