S&P Global Market Intelligence, MarketAxess | Bonds & Fixed Income

Following the announcement of a new knowledge partnership between S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketAxess, we sat down with Kat Sweeney, Head of Data & ETF Solutions at MarketAxess, and Tasha Gonska, Global Head of Pricing, Valuations and Reference Data at S&P Global Market Intelligence, to be taught more about how the partnership is working, and what it means to their two corporations transferring ahead.

How did this partnership between your two companies originate?

Kat: While MarketAxess is extensively often known as a main digital trading platform, we now have a important footprint within the Fixed Income Data business, most notably with CP+, our real-time, AI-powered bond-pricing device that updates each 15 seconds for the investible bond universe.

We noticed an alternative for CP+ to be a differentiated offering as an End of Day Evaluated Price. When we first began speaking with the workforce at S&P Global Market Intelligence (“SPGMI”) about a potential partnership, it was clear that there have been important synergies between our companies. Leveraging SPGMI’s Reference Data is a cornerstone of the partnership, permitting us to benefit from high-quality reference knowledge to our trading platform and knowledge offering. And SPGMI noticed the worth of integrating CP+ into their End of Day Evaluated Bond Pricing.

Tasha: Agreed — there are a lot of clear synergies. In as we speak’s unstable bond market, it’s essential that valuations replicate the latest market exercise. Our partnership with MarketAxess originated from our shared objective to determine new requirements for knowledge high quality and market responsiveness in bond valuation. This distinctive functionality will present shoppers with more dependable knowledge that captures the nuanced dynamics of Fixed Income markets. The integration of MarketAxess CP+ elevates our evaluated bond pricing service, enabling us to ship distinctive pricing high quality that distinctly units us aside within the market.

Our evaluated pricing service, with unique entry to MarketAxess CP+, is a important addition to the big selection of market data already accessible at S&P Global Market Intelligence and elevates the standard of our bond pricing service. This integration permits us to ship end-of-day valuations which are per the CP+ ranges utilized by the trading and portfolio management groups. These enhanced valuations play a important position in powering fixed income indices and main fixed income ETFs. 

Kat: Absolutely. The synergy of our mixed knowledge high quality and real-time capabilities creates a important aggressive edge benefitting our shoppers at a time once they need it most. Bringing our trusted, real-time pricing source to the End-of-Day Evaluated Price provided by SPGI is a actually distinctive offering and we see this as a great step in the direction of fixing many of the front-to-back-office pricing challenges our shoppers face.

What does that imply, the ‘front-to-back office’ pricing challenges?

Kat: It’s a great query. Take ETFs, for instance — an superb innovation in our market that has democratized investing. ETF technology requires Market Makers or Authorized Participants to stand in between the top investor of ETFs and the Manager of these ETFs. This affords many advantages to the top traders, nevertheless it has additionally required the Asset Management industry to evolve. ETF Asset Managers — their trading desks, capital markets groups, Portfolio Managers, Valuations desks, Risk and Compliance groups — need to entry to the identical instruments the Market Makers need to operate effectively throughout the ecosystem.  

CP+ is one of these instruments. Historically, CP+ was used primarily by Trading Desks, however with the exponential growth of ETFs we at the moment are serving to our Asset Manager Clients leverage CP+ as they optimize portfolios used for the creation and redemption of ETFs. Incorporating CP+ instantly into SPGMI’s Global Evaluated Bond Pricing service is a enormous milestone in our companies’ shared objective of closing the gaps between best execution, intraday trading selections and end-of-day valuations.

What sorts of bonds are coated?

Tasha: Our collaboration is strategically targeted on company, sovereign, and U.S. municipal bonds, the place we see elevated adoption of digital trading. By leveraging the information and distribution capabilities of two industry leaders, we goal to boost how our prospects make the most of mixed datasets. This covers each investment grade and high yield company bonds, alongside rising market, and developed market sovereign bonds, offering in depth protection throughout main bond markets. Through this partnership, MarketAxess will gain entry to complete phrases and circumstances knowledge, enriching each our trading platforms and knowledge merchandise.

What’s subsequent? Can we count on more collaboration from S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketAxess?

Tasha: This strategic partnership permits S&P Global Market Intelligence to develop new knowledge services and products that considerably improve buyer workflows within the Fixed Income market. Following our give attention to company and sovereign bond pricing, our quick precedence might be on municipal bond pricing, pushed by the growing electronification of trading. In the long time period, we’ll work carefully with our prospects to grasp their challenges and create knowledge options uniquely positioned to deal with these wants.

Kat: We’re equally optimistic. This partnership additionally opens doorways for innovation, particularly in phrases of utilizing AI and machine studying for deeper insights into bond markets. We’re excited to keep pushing the boundaries and serving to shoppers navigate an more and more advanced market panorama. Partnering with S&P Global Market Intelligence, which has a robust presence within the Fixed Income Index Market, presents alternatives to develop extra tradeable merchandise that cater to the wants of market members.