Bloomberg financial data service has suffered a significant outage, briefly paralysing trading rooms around the world and causing disruption to a UK government bond auction.
The terminal, a cornerstone of Michael Bloomberg’s media and financial empire, is used by approximately 350,000 subscribers globally. Traders rely on it for real-time financial data across a broad range of assets, from equities and commodities to currencies and government bonds. The terminals also offer news, analytics, and messaging tools crucial for fast-moving financial environments.
But on Wednesday morning, several key functions of the platform either slowed dramatically or stopped altogether, with the disruption hitting around 0900 GMT. Bloomberg’s help desk acknowledged a “technical issue” affecting numerous clients and said their technicians were working to restore full service.
Functionality began returning around 1000 GMT, though at a slower pace than normal. By midday, Bloomberg spokesman Ty Trippet confirmed that systems were “returning to normal operations” and terminal functionality had largely been restored.
The outage had immediate consequences. The UK Debt Management Office was forced to delay a government bond auction, extending the bidding window due to what it called “market-wide Bloomberg system issues.” The window finally closed at 1030 GMT — half an hour later than scheduled.
Traders expressed frustration with the disruption. Gregoire Kounowski, an investment adviser at London-based Norman K., told AFP: “It’s a mess. It’s blocking business.” Others reported intermittent access and partial functionality. Giles Plump, a copper trader at StoneX in London, noted that while price feeds were patchy and some features didn’t load, it was “not a major problem” for him personally.
A trader based in Dubai, who wished to remain anonymous, described the situation more starkly, saying the terminal was “down” and only briefly functional for seconds at a time.
Though Bloomberg has not specified the cause of the outage, such technical glitches are rare and usually resolved swiftly. Nevertheless, Wednesday’s disruption highlighted the platform’s critical role in global finance — and the vulnerability of even the most sophisticated systems to unexpected failure.
