GFI Group and Prism Valuation, a provider of valuation and risk management services, have signed a multi-year agreement for Prism to use GFI credit derivatives data in its valuation services.
Philip Winstone, global head of data sales at GFI, explains that discussions between the two parties have been ongoing since March this year. “A short term deal was signed then to allow Prism Valuation to use GFI data, while the overall commercials were hammered out and the multi-year agreement signed in September,” he adds.
GFI’s credit market data is sourced from the firm’s electronic trading platform, CreditMatch, he explains. Winstone believes that because the data is sourced in this way, rather than consensus or aggregate data, it is more reflective of real market prices.
Greg Cripps, president and CEO of Prism Valuation, adds: “We firmly believe that GFI’s high quality, truly representative, independent data is key to providing effective structured product valuation services.”
According to Winstone, Prism was keen to start using prices from GFI in its valuations and risk management services, because it saw the value in getting real market prices from the leading credit derivatives broker and using those prices in portfolios sensitive to creditworthiness. “From GFI’s perspective, the deal has emphasised the importance of our data to companies providing value add services to the financial community, particularly when we’ve seen a lot of scrutiny in the press over book mismarking. It is the first of many such deals in the pipeline.”
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