Barclays links up with Mark-it

Barclays Capital has signed up to provide global historical and current credit derivatives data to Mark-it Partners, a UK credit data company. In return, the bank will have access to Mark-it’s credit price services, including daily mark-to-market data for global credit default swaps and cash bonds, CDS curve analytics, sector curve construction and the associated set of historical data.

The agreement also extends to Barclays’ fund management division, Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which will use the Mark-it system globally across various functions -including assisting portfolio managers with their investment decisions and providing independent daily valuation of credit portfolios.

“We’ve anticipated the availability of independent daily credit pricing data for some time," said Justin Herlihy, principal and head of fixed-income product development in London for BGI. "Mark-It’s service will provide us with the additional market information necessary to better monitor our positions, manage our risk and support our operations.”

Lance Uggla, chief executive of Mark-it Partners, said the addition of Barclays Capital’s credit data will further enhance the depth of data coverage offered by Mark-it. At present, Mark-it’s partners include 13 major institutions. Barclays has not signed up to use the credit reference entity database, Red. Mark-it said last Monday that it intends to sign up between 12 and 20 major credit derivatives dealers to use Red within the next two weeks.