Goldman May Ban Certain Online Chat Services For Traders: WSJ | HuffPost

OMG: Goldman May Ban Some Online Chatting

Reuters

|

Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, attends the Clinton Global Initiative, Monday, Sept. 24, 2012 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Jan 23 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc may stop traders from using certain chat messaging services to protect internal conversations that are lately being subjected to intense regulatory scrutiny, the Wall Street Journal reported.

As per a new policy, Goldman will not allow person-to-person instant messaging services offered by Bloomberg LP, Yahoo Inc , AOL Inc and other third-party providers including Pivot Inc, a unit of CME Group Inc, the Journal said, citing a draft of a memo. (http://link.reuters.com/kar36v)

The move comes after Goldman, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Deutsche Bank banned their dealers from using online chatrooms.

Chatrooms have been a focus for regulators investigating possible rigging in foreign exchange market and a key interest rate known as the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, which has already cost banks billions of dollars in settlements.

Traders at banks and financial institutions often communicate with each other online via third-party services including Bloomberg LP and Thomson Reuters.

Recently, Goldman, JPMorgan and six other banks have agreed to join a new instant messaging network from Markit and Thomson Reuters to connect disparate messaging systems.

Goldman could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular U.S. business hours. (Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

Support HuffPost

At HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing deeply reported, carefully fact-checked news that is freely accessible to everyone.

Whether you come to HuffPost for updates on the 2024 presidential race, hard-hitting investigations into critical issues facing our country today, or trending stories that make you laugh, we appreciate you. The truth is, news costs money to produce, and we are proud that we have never put our stories behind an expensive paywall.

Would you join us to help keep our stories free for all? Your contribution of as little as $2 will go a long way.

Support HuffPost

Before You Go

The Most Evil Fictional Corporations

Globex(01 of40)

Appeared in: 'The Simpsons'Globex only appeared in a single episode, but that was one memorable episode. The company owned by Hank Scorpio at first appears to be one of those "progressive" 1990s workplaces where the boss wears loafers and everyone is on "flexi-time," until it emerges the loafer-wearing boss is a James Bond-style supervillain hell-bent on destroying the world. All while offering his employees free back rubs over lunch. (credit:20th Century Fox / YouTube)

Los Pollos Hermanos(02 of40)

Appeared in: 'Breaking Bad'(SPOILER ALERT) Los Pollos Hermanos was ostensibly a fried-chicken restaurant chain in the southwest U.S., but was in fact a cover for a multi-million-dollar drug distribution network. Operated by Gustavo Fring and owned by German conglomerate Madrigal Electromotive, the chain's image ended in ruins when Fring's underworld dealings were exposed. (credit:Sony Pictures Television)

InGen(03 of40)

Appeared in: 'Jurassic Park'InGen spared no expense building Jurassic Park, but the only profit from its enterprise was a lesson: Don't mess with nature. For unleashing a Tyrannosaurus rex on San Diego and other outrageous mishaps, InGen gets a place on our most evil corporations list. (credit:Universal Pictures / YouTube)

Initech(04 of40)

Appeared in: 'Office Space'Not so much evil as bureaucratic, falsely friendly and infinitely annoying, Initech is going to need you to go ahead and come in to the office this weekend, and every weekend for the rest of your life. That is, until they hire some consultants to show you you're no longer needed. The scene in which the company burns down was cathartic for countless numbers of office workers. (credit:20th Century Fox / YouTube)

Gekko & Co.(05 of40)

Appeared in: 'Wall Street'Gordon Gekko is best known for declaring "greed is good" in Oliver Stone's 'Wall Street,' and the fictional investor lived by his code. When he wasn't manipulating employees into illegally obtaining information for the purposes of insider trading, he was busy selling off viable companies for parts and causing mass layoffs. It all ended in a police sting operation and an eight-year prison sentence, but Gekko made enough of an impression to make the list. (credit:20th Century Fox / YouTube)

Wolfram & Hart(06 of40)

Appeared in: 'Angel'To say that a law firm is "evil" isn't really saying much we didn't already know, but Wolfram & Hart is special: Its senior partners are three demons known as the Wolf, the Ram and the Heart. Its lawyers represented the worst of humanity and demonkind alike, but in the end Angel and his team were actually put in charge of the firm, with the show trying to answer the question: Can you actually change the establishment from the inside? Apparently not, since show concluded with Angel and friends avoiding being corrupted by standing their ground and sparking the apocalypse. (credit:20th Century Fox)

Oscorp(07 of40)

Appeared in: 'Spider-Man' franchiseThe company founded by Norman Osborn "typically deals with experimental science, military research and cross-species genetics," according to the Amazing Spider-Man Wiki. Among the company's transgressions: Building a giant space robot to kill Spider-Man; creating prosthetic limbs that turn you into a lizard; and inadvertently creating Electro, a human electrical capacitor. (credit:Marvel)

Mondo Burger(08 of40)

Appeared in: 'Good Burger'Possibly the world's most evil fast food outlet, Mondo Burger poisons the competition's food and literally tries to seduce people into working for the company. When its nefarious schemes are uncovered, the company kidnaps the would-be whistleblowers and puts them in a mental hospital. Would you like a side of evil with your burger? (credit:Nickelodeon Movies)

Charles Foster Kane's newspaper empire(09 of40)

Appeared in: 'Citizen Kane'At the height of his power, Charles Foster Kane controlled two newspaper syndicates and a radio network. The first newspaper he owned, the New York Inquirer, managed to start the Spanish-American War in 1898 with false, warmongering news reports. From then on, Kane leveraged his news empire for his personal and political benefit, until he finally died, alienated and alone, with the word "Rosebud" on his lips. "You provide the prose poems; I'll provide the war," goes Kane's infamous line from the movie. No comment here on well-known parallels between Kane's empire and a certain real-world newspaper publisher. (credit:Public domain image)

Umbrella Corporation(10 of40)

Appeared in: 'Resident Evil'Like sci-fi movies, video games are full of evil corporations, and among the most notable is Umbrella Corporation, a massive conglomerate from the 'Resident Evil' universe that, on the surface, makes happy little cosmetics and food products, but is in fact a thoroughly evil producer of weaponized viruses that turn people into zombies.They maintain their empire through the use of a heavily-equipped paramilitary group that pretty much looks like an independent army, with its fleet of attack helicopters, cargo ships and planes. (credit:Capcom)

Buy n' Large(11 of40)

Appeared in: 'Wall-E'Buy n' Large is every anti-corporate consumer advocate's worst dream: A company that eventually buys out all other companies and effectively rules the world, eventually polluting the planet so badly that the entire population of earth is forced into living in spaceships... built and operated by Buy n' Large. (credit:Disney)

Omni Consumer Products(12 of40)

Appeared in: 'Robocop' franchiseLike many other corporations in dystopian sci-fi flicks, OCP is a company that makes everything, including entire cities and robotic cops. The company privatizes the entire city of Detroit, renaming it "Delta City" and ruling it with an indiscriminate iron fist. Given Detroit's recent bankruptcy, that part doesn't even seem far-fetched at the moment. (credit:MorganRLewis / DeviantArt)

Virtucon(13 of40)

Appeared in: 'Austin Powers' franchiseVirtucon CEO Number Two had just built the company into a legitimate multi-billion-dollar corporation when its founder, Dr. Evil, was revived from cryogenic freezing and retook the company as part of his plan for world domination (or whatever it was). Its annual sales are estimated at... one million dollars! (credit:New Line Cinema / YouTube)

The Tyrell Corporation(14 of40)

Appeared in: 'Blade Runner'Tyrell Corp. could be said to be more controversial than downright evil, but it crossed a major moral line when it started producing cyborgs ("replicants") identical to humans who don't know they're machines. "More human than a human" is Tyrell's motto. (credit:Warner Bros. / YouTube)

Lexcorp(15 of40)

Appeared in: 'Superman'Lexcorp is Lex Luthor's giant holding company, which he uses to carry out his nefarious, often real estate-related schemes. According to Wikipedia, Lexcorp "has become one of the world's largest, most diversified multinational corporations. Under the astute -- some would say, ruthless -- management of its founder, Lex Luthor, LexCorp grew and prospered, absorbing scores of smaller businesses." (credit:Warner Bros. / YouTube)

Yoyodyne(16 of40)

Appeared in: The Crying of Lot 49, 'Buckaroo Banzai,' 'Star Trek'Yoyodyne, an aerospace defense giant, is remarkable for how many different works of fiction it has appeared in. The company first appears in Thomas Pynchon's 1960s novels V. and The Crying of Lot 49, before making an appearance in 1984's 'Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai,' where it was a front for an alien invasion of Earth. Some Trekkies swear the company built Starfleet's ships in the 'Star Trek' franchise, and the company is even a client of the previously mentioned law firm Wolfram & Hart on the TV series Angel. (credit:Joe Giardino)

Weiland-Yutani(17 of40)

Appeared in: 'Alien' franchiseKnown as Weiland in the original 'Alien' and Weiland-Yutani thereafter, this company keeps sacrificing employees in order to bring the alien to Earth. It's never been entirely clear how an uncontrollable, remorseless killing machine can be turned into a marketable military weapon, but as long as they keep making 'Alien' movies, Weiland-Yutani is sure to keep trying. Forbes estimates Weiland-Yutani's annual revenue at $59.4 billion. (They run an intergalactic shipping company, after all.) (credit:20th Century Fox)

Momcorp(18 of40)

Appeared in: 'Futurama'Mom's Friendly Robot Company has a monopoly on the robot industry in the 30th century, and the sole shareholder is Mom. Though her public image is warm and friendly, underneath she's a mean old bat with a unique way of using profanities ("Stuff a bastard in it, you crap!"). Her evil culminated with a plot in which she attempted to use the robots she built to take over planet Earth. (credit:30th Century Fox)

Soylent Corporation(19 of40)

Appeared in: 'Soylent Green'(SPOILER ALERT) Soylent Corp. at first appeared to have solved the 21st century's massive overcrowding and food shortage problems with a new food product called Soylent Green, a green wafer billed as containing "high-energy plankton." But then it turns out Soylent Green is, you know, made of people. (credit:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

Springfield Nuclear Power(20 of40)

Appeared in: 'The Simpsons'What can be said about a nuclear power plant that has Homer Simpson as its chief safety inspector? C. Montgomery Burns' operation has suffered countless meltdowns and near-meltdowns, and its waste disposal methods have left three-eyed fish in Springfield's waterways. The company's evil peaked in 1995, when Burns used a massive metal dish to block out the sun over Springfield, forcing everyone to consume more of the nuke plant's power. For his efforts, Burns got a bullet to the chest. (credit:20th Century Fox)

Scrooge & Marley(21 of40)

Appeared in: 'A Christmas Carol'Scrooge & Marley, a loan-shark operation in 19th-century London, was infamous for its policy of forcing employees to work on Christmas Day, so that the company wouldn't fall behind on its mortgage foreclosures. Seven years after partner Jacob Marley's death, owner Ebenezer Scrooge experienced a Christmas Eve revelation, convincing him to turn the company into a charitable organization. It went bankrupt shortly thereafter. (credit:Wikimedia Commons)

Cyberdyne Systems(22 of40)

Appeared in: 'The Terminator' franchiseCyberdyne Systems built Skynet, the defense computer program that came to life and destroyed the human race, paving the way for the rise of the machines -- machines that were themselves designed by Cyberdyne, such as the Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 cyborg pictured here. (credit:Warner Bros.)

Dr. Evil and Lloyd Blankfein(23 of40)

Dr. Evil from Austin Powers, played by Mike Meyers, and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. (credit:New Line/AP)

Alistair Hennessey and Vikram Pandit(24 of40)

Alistair Hennessey from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, played by Jeff Goldblum, and former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit. (credit:Miramax/AP)

Emperor Palpatine and Rupert Murdoch(25 of40)

Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars, played by Ian McDiarmid, and News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. (credit:Lucasfilm Ltd./Getty)

Nurse Ratched and Meg Whitman(26 of40)

Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, played by Louise Fletcher, and Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman. (credit:Warner Bros./AP)

Ashley Schaeffer and Richard Branson(27 of40)

Ashley Schaeffer from HBO's Eastbound and Down, played by Will Ferrell, and Virgin CEO Richard Branson. (credit:HBO/AP)

Lex Luther and Jeff Bezos(28 of40)

Lex Luthor from Superman Returns, played by Kevin Spacey, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. (credit:Warner Bros./AP)

Regina George and Marissa Mayer(29 of40)

Regina George from Mean Girls, played by Rachel McAdams, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. (credit:Paramount Pictures/AP)

White Witch and Abigail Johnson(30 of40)

The White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia, played by Tilda Swinton, and Fidelity Investments CEO Abigail Johnson. (credit:Disney Enterprises, Inc./Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Ty Moncrief and Mike Jeffries(31 of40)

Ty Moncrief from Drop Zone, played by Gary Busey, and Abercrombie and Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries. (credit:Lions Gate/AP)

Emperor Commodus and Larry Page(32 of40)

Emperor Commodus from Gladiator, played by Joaquin Phoenix, and Google CEO Larry Page. (credit:Paramount/AFP/Getty)

Goldfinger and Jeff Immelt(33 of40)

James Bond villain Goldfinger from Goldfinger, played by Gert Fröbe, and General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt. (credit:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios/AP)

Daniel Plainview and Reed Hastings(34 of40)

Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. (credit:Paramount/Getty Images)

Boris Badenov and Carlos Slim(35 of40)

Boris Badenov from Rocky and Bulwinkle, voiced by Paul Frees for much of the show's run, and Telmex CEO Carlos Slim. (credit:Classic Media/AP)

Stuntman Mike and Brian Moynihan(36 of40)

Stuntman Mike from Deathproof, played by Kurt Russell, and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan. (credit:Vivendi Entertainment/AP)

Count Rugen and Larry Ellison(37 of40)

Count Rugen from The Princess Bride, played by Christopher Guest, and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. (credit:MGM/AP)

The Boss and Kenneth Chennault(38 of40)

The Boss from Lucky Number Slevin, played by Morgan Freeman, and American Express CEO Kenneth Chennault (credit:Weinstein Company/WikiMedia)

Henry Evans and Mark Zuckerberg(39 of40)

Henry Evans from The Good Son, played by Macaulay Culkin, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (credit:Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/AP)

The Donald and Donald Trump(40 of40)

Chairman of the Trump Organization Donald Trump and Donald Trump from The Apprentice. (credit:AP)

Suggest a correction

|

From Our Partner

HuffPost Shopping's
Best Finds

This $4 Cat Toy Is 'Worth Its Weight In Gold' — And Behaviorists Say There's A Reason

The Most Comfortable Sandals For Walking All Day, According To Tour Guides Who Live In Them

The Best Durable Shoes, According To Zookeepers Who Work In Mud All Day

This $4 Cat Toy Is 'Worth Its Weight In Gold' — And Behaviorists Say There's A Reason

Amazon Is Basically Giving Away This Secretly Amazing Laptop Backpack Right Now