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Bloomberg Codes Made Public, Vendor Calls for Open Standards in Reference Data Market

Tine Thoresen

LONDON - Bloomberg has started making Bloomberg codes publicly and freely available to everyone, in a bid to help customers and make a push toward open standards in the financial information industry, Inside Reference Data has learned.

Bloomberg has launched a new website - bsym.bloomberg.com - where users can access and download Bloomberg codes, used to identify financial instruments in Bloomberg products, for free. The interactive site, enabling users to look at sectors or specific instruments, will evolve in response to user needs.

Previously, the standard was proprietary, but following the financial crisis, Bloomberg has been working with customers to help them save money, and use features and functions already included in the single-price Bloomberg Professional service to displace multiple desktop products. During conversations with customers, proprietary standards emerged as one of their major cost issues, and Bloomberg then decided to publish its own symbology at no cost.

Bloomberg has already published a large number of the codes online, starting with securities covered in the B-Pipe high-speed data feed, as these were the codes customers were specifically asking for. The plan now is to extend the coverage to more asset classes used in the Bloomberg terminal, and also to publish the algorithms used for creating the symbols.

In fact, the creation of Bloomberg codes can be seen as relatively straightforward, and for Nasdaq ticker symbols, for example, the Bloomberg code is the ticker with a 'UQ' behind it. "The idea is that if you want to use us in your system, not only will you be able to publicly source our symbols, but we're also going to publish the methodology for how we create those symbols," says a Bloomberg source.

The focus is now on figuring out how to take this forward, and ensuring effective and intelligent distribution of the symbols and the algorithms to ensure customers can get the best benefit from this. The group is looking for depositories, where the algorithms can be made available so that a competitor, for example, would not have to contact Bloomberg. "Our goal is to make this so public that Bloomberg doesn't know what you're doing (with the symbols)," the Bloomberg source says.

This development, and the launch of the public website, has now generated positive feedback from all parts of the industry. Paris-based Andre Kelekis, senior strategist, BNP Paribas, says: "I think standards are a necessary condition to build the next open market data network paradigm. I welcome the Bloomberg offer especially due to the terms, offering free storage and use of their BSYM codes in our databases, something that is not the case with codes from other vendors."

In fact, limitations to the use of symbology and fees being charged for the use of identifiers has already been investigated by competition authorities in the European Union.

Last month, Inside Reference Data revealed the European Commission (EC) has sent out a questionnaire focused on terms of use relating to Reuters Instrument Codes, the instrument identifier used by Thomson Reuters, and in January this year, the EC launched formal proceedings against Standard & Poor's (S&P), investigating if the fees being charged by S&P for databasing International Security Identification Numbers based on Cusip numbers are in breach of EU competition law.

The recent cases mean the Bloomberg initiative has now been praised for setting a good example. "It think this is a great move, and it's good to see more of that action in the symbology field," comments a vendor.

Princeton-based Ed Ventura, president of Ventura Management Associates, says: "I think it's great that someone stepped up to do this and will offer it within the public domain. I think that over time it will be adopted and be the vehicle that will expedite trading and settlement. It will also change the playing field for proprietary information."

In fact, market participants are impressed that Bloomberg is now the first to open up its standard. Washington, DC-based Bill Nichols, former program director, FISD, says: "For them to do something like this borders on shocking. This is a great move."

Bloomberg has also received positive feedback from clients, which were the ones to request the change. The hope now is that other players in the identification space will follow suit and open up standards, something that is seen as being beneficial to both data consumers and vendors.

Still, before using the new service, some are looking for more questions answered regarding the maintenance of the symbology. "I would like to know how frequently it is updated, for example," says a vendor, and BNP Paribas' Kelekis underlines that there is no guarantee for correctness and accuracy.

Yet, Bloomberg is using the same codes internally, and the focus on data quality will continue as normal. The vendor will continue maintaining them as Bloomberg itself is a consumer of the same product, and poor quality would be detrimental to the business.

Meanwhile, users have also questioned if the new move from Bloomberg is permanent. "We cannot be sure Bloomberg will not change this policy in the future," says Kelekis.

But Bloomberg is not likely to change course and close the symbology, or begin to charge for its access, according to a Bloomberg source. Opening up the symbology and then closing it again could have repercussions on the business, and would perhaps have been worse than just continuing being proprietary.

Market participants also questioned if the term "a user," in the website terms of usage, meant "a Bloomberg customer." Yet, the wording has already been clarified. In fact, the company has reacted to market feedback, and reworded the agreement to avoid confusion in the future. Bloomberg is working hard to ensure that when it says it is open, everybody will agree that it is open in every possible way.