About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

IDC’s Strategic Deal with Markit Provides Cooperative Framework

Subscribe to our newsletter

This month’s data redistribution deal between Interactive Data Corp.’s FT Interactive Data and Markit Group belies a more strategic alliance, than at first it appears. The agreement gives FT Interactive Data clients access to the models Markit uses for its bond valuations as well as use of Markit’s own credit default swap, credit index and bond pricing data within FT Interactive’s own corporate and government bond evaluation models.

The deal lends credence to
A-Team Group’s recent findings that evaluations data is finally gaining credibility within the European marketplace, having long been accepted as a way of pricing illiquid bonds in the U.S. (A-Team’s research, which was commissioned by Reuters, is available for download at www.a-teamgroup .com/fixedincome.php.)

Under its deal with Markit, FT Interactive Data will use Markit’s pricing data within the models it uses for its corporate and government bond evaluations services. The Markit data will be used in addition to the existing sources FT Interactive Data’s evaluations teams currently use. FT Interactive Data believes this will provide increased market visibility of credit markets instruments and give clients a wider view for comparative analysis between bond offerings.

FT Interactive Data is a market leader in providing independent daily market evaluations, covering around 2.5 million fixed income and international equity issues. It supplies evaluated pricing to more than 4,000 global financial institutions. Though terms of the arrangement are not public, Markit doubtless sees value in this potential audience for its pricing services.

As part of the arrangement, FT Interactive Data will make available to clients a series of Markit data services. These include Markit’s CDS and loan datasets, historical data, CDX and iTraxx families of index data, and Markit’s Reference Entity Database (RED). Meanwhile, Markit will provide its clients with access to FT Interactive Data’s fixed income evaluation services through the Markit Portal, a distribution channel for asset pricing, news and research.

For FT Interactive Data, though, the Markit deal holds the promise of offering clients the ability to conduct their own evaluations using Markit’s models. This could appeal to clients holding thinly traded, over-the-counter derivative securities for which no documentation or valuation mechanism exists. Markit’s bank and dealer contributors allow it to price such securities.
As such, the relationship with Markit is strategic for FT Interactive Data, which foresees leveraging the accord to help it develop pricing services that meet the increasingly complex requirements of holders of OTC securities, including credit default swaps. The company believes its arrangement with Markit gives it an edge over others operating in this area.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Upcoming Webinar: The Role of Data Fabric and Data Mesh in Modern Trading Infrastructures

23 September 2025 10:00am ET | 3:00pm London | 4:00pm CET Duration: 50 Minutes The demands on trading infrastructure are intensifying. Increasing data volumes, the necessity for real-time processing, and stringent regulatory requirements are exposing the limitations of legacy data architectures. In response, firms are re-evaluating their data strategies to improve agility, scalability, and governance....

BLOG

Businesses Struggling with ESG Data that will Aid SFDR Compliance

Most businesses are struggling to prepare their data to meet a new European regulation that is designed in part to deliver huge troves of corporate ESG information into financial institutions’ systems. More than four-fifths of companies questioned in a study by data mastering company Semarchy said they lack confidence in their data management capabilities to...

EVENT

Data Licensing Forum 2025

The Data Licensing Forum will explore industry trends, themes and specific developments relating to licensing of financial market data from Exchanges and Data Vendors.

GUIDE

AI in Capital Markets: Practical Insight for a Transforming Industry – Free Handbook

AI is no longer on the horizon – it’s embedded in the infrastructure of modern capital markets. But separating real impact from inflated promises requires a grounded, practical understanding. The AI in Capital Markets Handbook 2025 provides exactly that. Designed for data-driven professionals across the trade life-cycle, compliance, infrastructure, and strategy, this handbook goes beyond...