China joins central banks' call for Bloomberg answers

China's central bank and foreign exchange regulator have joined the world's major monetary authorities in demanding answers from Bloomberg about access journalists at the global financial information provider may have to confidential data.

Sources close to senior officials at the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) told the South China Morning Post that both institutions had raised concerns with Bloomberg executives in Beijing in the face of a broadening privacy scandal at the data provider.

"The central bank has been in contact with Bloomberg in a private manner," said one source close to senior officials at the PBOC. The source said that the central bank and SAFE - guardian of the world's biggest stash of foreign reserves worth some US$3.4 trillion - had decided against making a public statement.

"The central bank doesn't want to come out and publicly comment on the Bloomberg case because the Chinese government has some concerns about its relations with the United States," said one source. "Communication work is already under way in a private manner."

The list of central banks that have said they were examining Bloomberg’s use of data includes the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Canada, Germany’s Bundesbank.