LONDON- The Bank of England said it could have identified what it described as misuse of an audio feed of its news conferences sooner, in a report into concerns about a company that operated the YouTube stream for its public media briefings.
"Our Review has indicated that there were occasions where, with the benefit of hindsight, this misuse by a third party supplier of the Bank's audio feed could have been identified sooner by the Bank," the BoE said.
However Britain's Financial Conduct Authority, in a parallel investigation, said it did not believe there had been any misuse of insider information or activity of concern or misconduct and closed its investigation into the matter.
The BoE said the supplier with which it had a dispute had been on a standard contract, and that it would apply tighter checks and bespoke contracts for this type of work in future.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Bank of England news conferences were broadcast live via a standard over-the-air transmission and also streamed on YouTube.
There is a slight broadcast delay for video from both sources, and audio can be sent faster.
The BoE said that the firm it had contracted to provide the YouTube service sent the faster audio feed to financial market traders without its knowledge.
The BoE said it received a specific allegation about the practice in late 2018, but did not fully investigate it.
The BoE took action to bar the supplier in December 2019.
(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Stephen Addison) ((david.milliken@reuters.com; +44 20 7542 5109; Reuters Messaging: david.milliken.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
