Markit keeps on turning up the numbers
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| "The banks were pumping more and more money into their valuations teams to provide prices to investors but their clients were not happy with the outcome" |
Markit continues to grow its portfolio of products and offerings. The latest is called Valuations Manager, which is slated as the first global, multi-bank, cross-asset client platform. Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch and UBS are the first banks to have signed up, and will provide Markit with end-of-day and end-of-month client valuations for OTC derivatives and cash securities. Markit will aggregate this data and enable funds to access the composite dealer marks in addition to Markit’s independent valuations – all on a single platform. Valuing even the most simple, straightforward security has become a difficult business in the present turmoil. Just as ample liquidity was taken for granted by investors and fund managers, so were tight bid-offer spreads and narrow ranges between different dealers’ marks. Now that landscape has transformed; with liquidity scarce, prices, correspondingly, lack anything like the near unanimity that was prevalent before – especially in complex securities.