Today, Bloomberg launched new customized tools and analytics specifically for investor relations professionals, whose roles within corporations have dramatically evolved over the past decade.

Historically, these individuals were primarily asked to communicate with investors and analysts about the events that could potentially affect the organization’s stock value. Today, they are involved in wider company initiatives, including assessing competitive threats and measuring strategic initiatives. The abilities of an IR professional are key in attracting a stable and growing shareholder base, and can ultimately influence the company’s overall stock value.

Given the continued market fluctuations and heightened regulatory scrutiny, corporations are seeking IR professionals that have a broad understanding of the markets and the needs of shareholders. Korn/Ferry Institute found 42 percent of current IR officers (IROs) are new to the role in the past two years, more than 15 percent are former sell-side or buy-side analysts and 21 percent hold CPA designations, up from 15 percent in 2010. Research also shows these individuals increasingly report directly to the CFO, CEO, president or chairman. The Fisher School of Accounting at the University of Florida found that “IR has grown from a peripheral component of the CFO’s responsibilities in the 1980′s to a demanding professionalized function.”

“We’re moving toward more credentialed IROs and more of a senior role,” said David Farwell, senior vice president at ABM Industries. “Diverse experience is becoming far more important to the job, as is a sophisticated knowledge and use of technology.”

Having collaborated with IR professionals across industries and countries, Bloomberg has built ways to better monitor the markets, manage current investors and analyst relationships, and prospect for new investors.

“To be a successful investor relations officer today, you need the right tools to analyze your company’s market position so you can better communicate to shareholders, analysts and your own management team,” said David Erdman, manager of investor relations at Quicksilver Resources. “The Bloomberg Professional service provides the customized, sophisticated solution I need to do my job better and more efficiently.”

To learn more about the Bloomberg Professional service and the new investor relations tools available to subscribers click here.

Rishaad Salamat, TV Anchor/Reporter, Bloomberg, Hong Kong SAR, is captured during the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, June 6.,2013. Copyright World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org) Photo by Sikarin Thanachaiary

Bloomberg TV’s focus on delivering breaking stories from Asia to the world’s business and financial communities took us to Myanmar last week to cover the World Economic Forum on East Asia 2013. In Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, my colleagues reported on Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s intention to run for president in elections two years from now. For Bloomberg TV, Haslinda Amin and I interviewed Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi, AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes and WPP CEO Martin Sorrell on their Myanmar strategy and positive outlook for Asia.

I also had the privilege of moderating an hour-long debate, which kicked off the two-day WEF programme. Five government and corporate leaders traded views on the opportunities and challenges in strengthening East Asia trade networks and boosting ASEAN integration.

Asked about the risks involved in ASEAN integration, the two government leaders on the panel, Kittiratt Na-Ranong Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Thailand and Cesar V. Purisima, Secretary of Finance of the Philippines, singled out the forces of nationalism and bilateralism. “The mindset and understanding of people” needed to change to embrace integration, noted Kittiratt while Purisima said countries cannot lose sight of “Asean centrality” in thinking about their relationship with the rest of the world. “In any integration process, you need a lot of trust.…we need to prove to our people that they will win in an integrated Asean,” said Purisima.

The business leaders focused on how Asean could continue on its growth path together with its neighbours. Yorihiko Kojima, Chairman of the Board, Mitsubishi Corporation, Japan, spoke of Asia’s “economic diversity” – with different countries being able to support different industries across the value chain – as the secret of its sustained economic growth.

Harish Manwani, Chief Operating Officer, Unilever, Singapore stressed the need for harmonisation and simplification of business regulations to further tap on intra-Asian trade opportunities. Tarek Sultan Al Essa, Chairman and Managing Director, Agility, Kuwait, called for more attention to fixing supply chain chokes. One initiative he suggested was for each country to have a national regulator to work on supply chain competitiveness, as “if 10% of growth is at stake, then it makes sense from a policy perspective to have such a body.”

The debate ended with the participants’ upbeat outlook for the region, reflecting what I’d identify as a sense of pride in how far Asean has come in the last decade amidst Asia’s increasing influence on global markets. Bloomberg TV continuously aims to be the first to break fast, accurate and market-moving news from Asia and we were excited to be at the first-ever multi-stakeholder gathering in Myanmar. Myanmar is one of Asia’s most exciting economic frontiers and this fact was not lost on the over 900 leaders from 55 countries at last week’s meetings.

The debate will be televised on Bloomberg TV on 14 June at 6pm SGT/HKT.

Rishaad Salamat, Bloomberg TV’s Senior Correspondent and Anchor, based in Hong Kong

At Bloomberg, we believe in creating an open and honest workplace that values the demographic diversity of all our employees. For that reason, Dan Doctoroff and the members of BPROUD, Bloomberg’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendercommunity, join the It Gets Better worldwide movement.

Robert Montello, AIM Premium Account Manager

In an effort to further standardize and make transparent the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has chosen to collaborate with Bloomberg to publish the Standard Credit Support Annex or SCSA. This joint effort will create efficiencies and transparency in the markets and has broad industry support.

A credit support annex is an agreement between market participants that dictates financial terms (including collateral or margin exchange) for trading OTC instruments. This new SCSA will level the playing field by simplifying this agreement process and promoting consistent and transparent valuation framework.

Bloomberg will act as the calculation agent, data provider and disseminator for ISDA’s SCSA. Our involvement will include calculating the SCSA using overnight interest rates and Bloomberg’s foreign exchange (FX) rates, and publishing these rates daily to the Bloomberg Professional service at SCSA for our more than 315,000 global subscribers.

As Deutsche Bank AG’s Global Head of Institutional Sales Richard Herman said in ISDA’s announcement, the SCSA “represents a major step forward in developing a consistent valuation framework for market participants.”

Also in the announcement, R. Martin Chavez, Goldman Sachs’ Managing Director and Global Co-COO, Equities Franchise, said, “The SCSA is an important industry-driven response to the evolving public and private sector thinking on the topic of risk mitigation. It is another step in the ongoing efforts of ISDA and market participants to standardize OTC derivatives practices and processes.”

Bloomberg is proud to be a part of this important market initiative, to help promote transparency and efficiency in the OTC derivatives markets.

To continue to serve our clients and bring increased transparency and efficiency to the marketplace, yesterday Bloomberg filed an application to become a multi-asset class swap execution facility (SEF). Our application was submitted following the official publication of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) rules related to SEFs.

Bloomberg remains committed to Dodd-Frank’s objectives of increasing transparency and standardization in the swaps market, including the requirement to make real-time, post-trade data available to the public. Therefore, Bloomberg has also applied to be a swap data repository (SDR) to enable market participants to fulfill their reporting requirements across all derivative asset classes.

Today, we introduced our plans and began the conversation with our clients by holding a webinar to discuss our timeline, explain how they can access or provide liquidity on the platform and outline how trades will be reported to SDRs.

Stay tuned for more information soon.