'Hijacked' Bank of England audio sold to hedge funds seconds ahead of broadcast

It's not a surprise. There have been rumours for a long time that one of the large UK banks get the Prime Minister's speeches 30 minutes before they are made.

is this really a surprise? I was virtually present (doing techy stuff) at an early morning trading-strategy meeting at an investtment bank many years ago.

The lead asked which way the interest-rate decision later that day was going to go, and he was told, basically, "Not sure, we think ...".

His immediate response was "I pay you to KNOW what's been decided", and the subsequent conversation revealed that he wasn't kidding.

I wonder if it's a room with no connectivity otherwise, because I imagine if you're in the room live, sending [UP] or [DOWN] with human latency would give you 6 seconds of relative exclusivity of the information.

No criminal charges anywhere in sight.