Markit Launches European ABS Pricing Service

Markit has launched an independent pricing service for European asset-backed securities (ABS), providing same day bid/offer prices and the spreads and average life assumptions on more than 3,500 European ABSs. The service receives daily mark-to-market pricing inputs from all the major dealers, which Markit cleans and validates prior to price dissemination. Dealers have the ability to make prices privately available, and to permission specific clients to see those prices. Buy-side users can also request pricing on a security from a particular institution through the website. The coverage includes European Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS), Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS), Asset-Backed Securities (ABS), and cash Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDO). Markit expects to extend its ABS pricing service into the U.S. arena next year, a market that is significantly deeper and more liquid than its European counterpart.