Edinburgh investment giant Abrdn has confirmed it is trialling alternatives to Bloomberg terminals as part of a its recently-announced move to slash about £150 million in costs.

The Bloomberg terminal is a data analytics, news and electronic trading platform which can cost up to $30,000 a year.

It is estimated that Abrdn has about one Bloomberg terminal for each person in its investment team, which has hundreds of staff.

A small number of investment staff working in shares are trialling a rival product from US data and software company FactSet, which costs about a third of the Bloomberg terminal.

An Abrdn spokesperson said: “No decision to change supplier has been made.

“A small number of colleagues are trialling alternative technology so we can evaluate whether we can continue to meet of all our needs but at a lower cost.

“If we decide to make any changes, this will be only done on the basis that our teams have the tools they need to work effectively.”

Abrdn said last month it will axe 500 jobs as part of a “new transformation programme targeting an annualised cost reduction of at least £150m by the end of 2025.”

The cost-cutting programme includes “the removal of management layers.”

Abrdn also confirmed it will soon close its office at 10 Queen’s Terrace in Aberdeen and that all 90 staff there will be asked to work from home.

The investment group reported H2 2023 net outflows of £12.4 billion as its year-end 2023 assets under management and administration fell slightly to almost £495 billion from almost £496 billion at the end of June.

London newspaper The Financial Times reported that the potential cutbacks to Abrdn’s Bloomberg terminal subscriptions would relate only to those working in equites and multi-asset teams — and not those in the fixed income (bonds) team as they rely on Bloomberg for pricing data.

Bloomberg declined to comment.