On 10 September 2024 Bloomberg started automatically blocking the forwarding of RUNZ-formatted messages.
A RUNZ formatted message is an email message composed on the Bloomberg Terminal by a market maker or broker / dealer that provides a list of bonds and indications of interest, indicative prices where a dealer stands ready to buy or sell a security, knowns as ‘runs’. They are relatively standardised and easily machine-readable which means the prices in these messages can serve an important purpose in framing markets in the corporate bond space.
Nicholas Bean, global head of electronic trading at Bloomberg, said, “We do not block any pricing communication from a sender to a recipient. It is very important to us for the sender, typically the sell-side dealer, to have confidence in the chain of custody of the prices they are providing to the recipient, usually a buy-side client.”
“RUNZ messages received from an outside firm (RUNZ messages that have been received by a firm different from the original sender) can not be forwarded using MRUL,” said the explanation posted on the terminal. “Pricing can be shared using an MSG1 group.”
The MRUL function is a configurable, automated email forwarding tool provided by the Bloomberg terminal license.
However, one market participant, noted, “The workaround described in the notice is very manual and simply not tenable given the high volume of messages in the corporate bonds sector (and possibly others).”
Bloomberg’s explanation for blocking the messages suggests that concerns have been raised regarding dealer RUNZ being passed on to third parties without consent. This could lead to information leakage on dealer pricing, although RUNZ are often only indicative.
“The change we have made supports [the chain of custody] by limiting systematic forwarding of dealer pricing to an email address without the consent of the dealer themselves,” said Bean. “To be clear, a recipient can still systematically have this data delivered to an email address by simply asking the sending dealer to facilitate this for them.”
Bloomberg did not comment on whether other message types were affected.
Earlier this year, dealers expressed concern when runs were “sprayed across the street” making them accessible to rivals on the Bloomberg terminal.
©Markets Media Europe 2024
