Mark-it Signs Up 16 Institutions For Project Red

Mark-it Partners has signed up an initial 16 financial institutions to its reference entity database service, known as Project Red, which draws on alphanumeric codes created by Standard & Poor’s Cusip Bureau Service (Reference Data Review, September 2003). The database was founded earlier this year by three institutions – Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and J.P. MorganChase – which granted the mandate to operate the service to Mark-it Partners. Mark-it says it has agreements in principle to subscribe to the service for a minimum of three years from: ABN Amro, Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Citigroup, CSFB, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, HSBC, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland, TD Securities and UBS. Project Red is aimed at reducing risk of mismatched credit default swap trades.