Thomson Reuters has seen a significant increase in new Eikon Messenger account registrations after the announcement that Yahoo will discontinue support for its legacy messaging and API service on August 5, 2016. Global energy company Gazprom Marketing and Trading Limited and Dong Energy, Denmark’s largest energy company, are the latest firms to publicly endorse Eikon Messenger following similar endorsements from Europe’s top energy brokers and international energy companies. 

'Eikon messenger delivers all the compliance and messaging functionalities needed to stay well connected to the energy trading markets,' said Shaun Stacey, global director of trading at GM&T.

The number of Eikon Messenger users connecting with counterparts on Yahoo Messenger has grown by 115% over the last quarter as many commodity and energy market participants encourage their counterparts to join them on Eikon Messenger ahead of the Yahoo deadline.  A survey from petrochemical market information provider ICIS recently showed that Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger has emerged as the messaging platform of choice for professionals migrating from Yahoo Messenger’s legacy messaging service.

‘Eikon Messenger provides Dong Energy’s trading floor with a platform to communicate effectively with other market participants and satisfy our compliance obligations. In addition the ability to easily find other contacts is very helpful,’ said Joe Mann, head of market trading at Dong Energy.

Since the start of the year the number of users migrating to Eikon Messenger from Yahoo Messenger has resulted in 7% growth in the Eikon Messenger Directory which now provides access to more than 288,000 users across 25,000 organizations in 180 countries.

‘The growth in our Eikon Messenger community demonstrates the continuing need for financial professionals to have access to an instant messaging platform that meets rigorous compliance needs, can connect with users on other messaging platforms, is cost-effective and improves workflow,’ said Lesli Fairchild, head of collaboration services, Thomson Reuters.  ‘We are committed to collaborating with network providers across the marketplace to provide our clients with innovative solutions that remove the barriers to communication in financial markets caused by closed networks.  Thomson Reuters also remains committed to helping energy and other firms in the process of transitioning from Yahoo’s messaging platform.’ 

Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger is an established, open and secure instant messaging collaboration tool for the global financial community. Available as part of Thomson Reuters Eikon and as a standalone, free-of-charge application, Eikon Messenger aids regulatory compliance by including bilateral chat controls in conjunction with a suite of active compliance tools, including features for keyword blocking, disclaimers and policy enforcement. Eikon Messenger is also supported on iOS, Blackberry, Android and Windows devices. 

In keeping with its open platform commitment, Thomson Reuters recently announced an agreement with CME Group to implement connectivity between Eikon Messenger and CME Pivot Instant Messaging in support of open and compliant cross-industry communication for financial and commodities markets. This combined service, available in Q3 2016, will allow over 300,000 current market participants using the respective messenger services to communicate seamlessly across platforms.

In a separate announcement, financial services firm INTL FCStone Inc. and European energy companies Griffin, 42FS, Marex Spectron and CEZ named Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger as one of their instant messaging networks of choice.