Thomson Reuters agrees to suspend early release of U-M consumer sentiment index

Thomson Reuters Corp. has voluntarily agreed to suspend the early release of a consumer sentiment survey conducted by the University of Michigan while the New York Attorney General’s office investigates the practice, a story on Bloomberg Businessweek reported.

Bloomberg reports that Thomson Reuters will now distribute the survey to all clients at 9:55 a.m. The company had previously released the index of consumer sentiment, which is produced by University of Michigan economists and paid for entirely by Thomson Reuters, to select clients at 9:54:58 a.m., affording a two second head start to the higher-tiered subscribers. The survey is released to the public at 10:00 a.m.

According to the survey's website, over 500 phone interviews are conducted every month to determine consumer sentiment in regard to personal finances, business conditions and buying conditions. The survey was founded in 1946 by University of Michigan professor George Katona.

The New York attorney general is investigating whether this tiered system constitutes a violation of insider trading regulations, according to the Bloomberg report. When news of the tiered system was first released in June, university spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald told CNBC that U-M’s arrangement with Thomson Reuters complied with regulations and that the index is produced with private funds.

Read the full article from Bloomberg Businessweek.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Get in touch with Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2