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Hedge funds have reportedly been listening in on the Bank of England's press conferences before they are broadcast after hackers accessed its internal systems. A supplier to the central bank has been allowing high speed traders to access an audio feed of press conferences, allowing them to get ahead of the market by listening to Governor Mark Carney's comments before anyone else.Read more: Why the Bank of England should hold interest rates The head start – which can be a matter of seconds – can allow traders to make a fortune as Carney's comments often move the value of the pound, the Times investigation found. The audio feed of the press conferences was installed to act as a back-up in case the main video feed failed, the Bank said. The third party supplier has since been blocked from accessing the feed. "This wholly unacceptable use of the audio feed was without the Bank's knowledge or consent, and is being investigated further," the Bank of England told the Times. Read more: Bank of England to set up climate change stress tests"On identifying this, the Bank immediately disabled the third party supplier's access. As a result, the third party supplier did not have any access to the most recent press conference and will no longer play any part in any of the Bank's future press conferences"The Bank operates the highest standards of information security around the release of the market sensitive decisions of its policy committees. The issue identified related only to the broadcast of press conferences that follow such statements."
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