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

Robert Montello, AIM Premium Account Manager

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.

Who doesn’t like a ranking?

Rankings help people gain control over information by creating order, or more precisely, ordered lists. Rankings can dispute (or support) “conventional wisdom” and for those who have a personal stake in a ranking, show them where they fit in. Is your state the best or the worst? How about your school, your company, your boss’ salary?

Still, rankings can be infuriating, particularly to those who perceive that they score poorly on them or to those who recognize that, well, there are rankings and then there are rankings. In a February 2011 New Yorker article, the celebrated and prolific observer Malcolm Gladwell took rankings to task, concluding at the end of his piece that “[who] comes out on top, in any ranking system, is really about who is doing the ranking.”

We agree. But we think there are ways to minimize bias and fairly evaluate data.

At Bloomberg, we started a Rankings team a little over three years ago. It has been mainly used as an internal resource as well as by those who subscribe to the Bloomberg Professional service. Today, with the help of our Visual Data team, we are launching a public showcase of the Team’s top 100 rankings at http://www.bloomberg.com/best-and-worst. Bloomberg Best (and Worst) presents a wide range of rankings in categories including Business, Economics, Investing, Lifestyle, Personal Finance and Politics & Policy. (Yes, Bloomberg’s forte has been in business and financial data, but we’ve also created a Lifestyle section with lighter, fun rankings.)

Data permeates everything we do at Bloomberg. In all of our rankings, we use a strictly-enforced discipline that we believe has raised the bar on how rankings are constructed…and should be construed. There are many rankings, for example, that we just can’t, won’t and don’t do. We shy away from “Most Important” or “Most Influential” (or in either case “Least”). These are prime examples of rankings based on subjective information that we find impossible to quantify fairly.  Or, so far.

Hypothetically, consider a ranking of “Most Important Women in Tech Under 30 Years Old.” Indeed, we could readily compile a list of all the women holding executive positions in U.S. public companies in the tech industry who are under 30. But just how would we quantify “importance?”

That’s why we have strictly pledged to create our rankings purely out of data, and do not use surveys or polls.

Every one of our rankings carefully cites the source or sources of data used, the date it was created and includes a brief, but comprehensive methodology so that the reader, if so inclined, might recreate the ranking.

We hope, over time, our approach to rankings will not only help interpret data sets for our readers but also help them become sensitive to, and better discriminate between, questionable rankings and those that are solid.

Laurie Meisler, Head of Bloomberg Rankings

Over a decade ago, at the request of our clients, Bloomberg created its Fixed Income Trading (FIT) platform to connect our buy and sell side subscribers to provide openness and standardization in the fixed income market and to create more transparency. Bloomberg is dedicated to providing the solutions our clients have come to expect so that they can operate more effectively and efficiently in today’s dynamic marketplace.

We look forward to continuing to serve our buy and sell side clients by registering as a SEF.

Greg Babyak, Head of Government Affairs, Bloomberg L.P.

A Bloomberg client recently raised a concern that Bloomberg News reporters had access to limited customer relationship management data through their use of the Bloomberg Terminal. Although we have long made limited customer relationship data available to our journalists, we realize this was a mistake.

Having recognized this mistake, we took immediate action. Last month we changed our policy so that all reporters only have access to the same customer relationship data available to our clients. Additionally, we decided to further centralize our data security efforts by appointing one of our most senior executives to the new position of Client Data Compliance Officer. This executive is responsible for reviewing and, if necessary, enhancing protocols which among other things will continue to ensure that our news operations never have access to confidential customer data.

To be clear, the limited customer relationship data previously available to our reporters never included access to our trading, portfolio, monitor, blotter or other related systems or our clients’ messages. Moreover, reporters could not see news stories that clients read, or the securities they viewed. Bloomberg has very strict data security policies in place, in addition to significant and rigorous training, processes and protocols. Upon hiring, all Bloomberg employees enter into confidentiality provisions, including Bloomberg News.

Client trust is our highest priority and the cornerstone of our business, and we are deeply committed to ensuring the complete integrity and confidentiality of our clients’ data in all situations and at all times.

– Daniel L. Doctoroff, CEO and President, Bloomberg L.P.

BTV’s Peter Cook talks with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski who defended his decision to block the AT&T merger with T-Mobile

Another successful Bloomberg Washington Summit is in the books. We covered a lot of ground – everything from Fed policy and the deficit to net neutrality and Eddie Murphy movies. If you missed the day-long discussion and our all-star line-up of speakers, the good news is C-SPAN documented the whole thing (c-spanvideo.org/event/218019video.org/event/218019). Let me share a few highlights from my vantage point as emcee.

Former Fed Governor Larry Meyer told us that current Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen has the “right of first refusal” to become the leader of the central bank when Ben Bernanke steps down. Economist Adam Posen didn’t agree. The former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee said Yellen had the qualifications but lacked the “personal relationship” with the President needed to land the Chairmanship. His alternative? Former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner who has said he doesn’t want the job.

In a panel on investor confidence, SkyBridge Capital co-managing partner Anthony Scaramucci described a “paralysis in the American business community” right now. He also declined an invitation to run for Congress. On the same panel, former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt gave the Dodd-Frank law a “F” grade.

Just minutes later, the current CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler painted a very different picture of Dodd-Frank. He said the new derivative rules his agency has implemented mark a “paradigm shift” that will benefit markets and the economy. At the same time, he made a plea to Congress to fully fund his agency. The CFTC’s current budget is $205 million. He’s asking for $315 million so his employees can enforce the new rules now on the books.*

Looking back at his four years on office, outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski defended his decision to block the AT&T merger with T-Mobile. “Absolutely the right call,” he told me in one of his last interviews as Chairman. He said the decision resulted in greater competition. Genachowski also predicted that the “net neutrality” rules he put in place will survive legal challenge.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell faces his own challenges with sequestration and shrinking federal dollars. The Republican talked about that with Bloomberg Washington Executive Editor Susan Goldberg. Susan also questioned the Governor about a Washington Post report that the FBI is investigating McDonnell’s relationship with a major campaign donor. McDonnell said he never provided “special treatment” to Star Scientific or its CEO Jonnie Williams. The Post reported Williams paid the $15,000 catering bill for the 2011 wedding of McDonnell’s daughter.

The day ended with a lot of agreement on the need for corporate tax reform. Aerospace Industries Association CEO Marion Blakey, Marsh & McLennan CEO Daniel Glaser Peebles Corp. CEO Don Peebles all predicted that there is a better than 50-50 chance of a tax overhaul this year. American Action Forum CEO Doug Holtz-Eakin was the lone pessimist. He put the odds below 50-50. It was Peebles who had the Eddie Murphy reference. He pulled a line from 1992′s “The Distinguished Gentleman”.

Thanks to all who made it happen and all the good questions. We’ll see you next year.

-Peter Cook, Chief Washington Correspondent, Bloomberg Television

*Bloomberg has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to prevent the CFTC from implementing regulation relating to the clearing of swaps. For more information, go here: http://blog.bloomberg.com/2013-05-02/bloomberg-legal-team-seeks-an-injunction-relating-to-the-cftc-swaps-margin-rule/.

Scalia and Cuomo issued the following statement:

For more information on Bloomberg’s suit, read Bloomberg CEO and President Dan Doctoroff’s piece in the Huffington Post.