J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse Consider Disabling Electronic Chat Rooms

No chatting for you!

• J.P. Morgan Chase and Credit Suisse are discussing internally whether to disable computerized chat rooms that electronically link traders across multiple banks, amid mounting scrutiny from regulators as potential venues for collusion and market manipulation
• Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays,UBS and Citigroup, also are reviewing chat-room use and standards for controlling and monitoring all electronic communications
• The chat room facility is mainly used through Bloomberg terminals
• But a series of regulatory probes into possible manipulation of markets has put the on the chat rooms

More at the Wall Street Journal: Big Banks May Block Traders From Chat Rooms (The Wall Street Journal is often gated, so if you’re unable to access the article try a search of Google news using the headline)