Thomson Reuters has extended the instant messaging service of its flagship Eikon platform to users of FXall, the foreign exchange trading platform it acquired last year.
The Eikon Messenger community will boost its current directory of 190,000 financial professionals – including those on the buy-side – with FXall users, which covers some 1,300 buy- and sell-side firms.
The service is available through the Eikon platform or as a standalone messaging tool.
Speaking to theTRADEnews.com, Peter Moss, head of trading for Thomson Reuters, said the firm wanted to encourage more open use of instant messaging across platforms, as users reduce phone communication in favour of the text-based form.
“Our instant messaging runs on a standardised and broadly adopted technology, which lets firms deploy it within their own networks, while also taking part in our platform,” Moss said. “Our customers want us to bring down the barriers of ring-fenced communication networks, to create a platform where everyone can talk to each other.”
He added that regulatory changes in recent years had necessitated the recording of all phone and text-based communications, which had made instant messaging more attractive from a compliance standpoint.
For example, communication data in the form of words can be searched and collated more easily than a recorded phone call.
“The growth of instant messaging to discuss trades prior to execution is continuing and is in part driven by regulation and the fact text is easier to monitor than traditional voice-based communication,” Moss said.
Over the service, buy-siders can communicate in real-time with liquidity providers and colleagues through instant electronic conversations as well as create public or private communities from across a global network of over 190,000 financial professionals, from 170 countries.