The Bank of England has responded angrily to the leak of a backup audio feed of its press conferences, which appears to have been given to hedge funds in advance of the main broadcast.

The BoE said it realised the third-party supplier tasked with managing the feed had been leaking the audio to “external clients” since earlier in the year. The discovery apparently came after a journalist at The Times made enquiries.

The newspaper reported that these clients were hedge funds, which may have been