Buy-Side Technology Awards 2014: Best Buy-Side Pricing/Valuation Service—Markit

With regulatory requirements continuing to place significant burdens on buy-side firms, pricing and portfolio valuations services are more important than ever. Markit offers a hosted service that includes independent mark-to-market valuations and risk analytics spanning Markit’s over-the-counter (OTC) pricing data.

The success of every vendor is based on the experience it provides customers, and Markit has made sure its latest enhancements are geared toward exactly what clients are looking for. That’s why this year Markit chose to expand its valuations services, covering illiquid debt and unlisted equity holdings, in an effort to help clients meet new Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) external valuer requirements.

With firms always looking for a flexible solution, Markit offers its valuations as an independent third-party provider or through helping customers comply with new regulations. Markit also added an Audit Verification service to streamline price verification by providing auditors with methodology documentation and supporting data via a self-service interface.

In addition to meeting AIFMD requirements, Markit has created a new regulatory dataset service to help firms comply with section 1.3 of the General Prudential sourcebook, Ucits, and IFRS/GAAP regulations.

A securitized products viewer has also been developed, providing clients with an efficient way to view evaluated bond pricing alongside market observations, gain insight into dealer offerings, and track bids-wanted-in-competition (BWICs).

With firms always looking for a flexible solution, Markit offers its valuations as an independent third-party provider or through helping customers comply with new regulations.

There appears to be no end to Markit’s product pipeline: A valuations comparison tool was recently released that can be used on internal, counterparty, or third-party sources. With new regulations increasing the importance of multiple pricing and valuation sources, Markit’s offering will look to improve firms’ effectiveness via a flexible and configurable framework.

“Auditors are increasingly seeking evidence of accurate and robust methodologies and processes to ensure compliance with credit valuation adjustment provisions for fair value measurement under IFRS 13,” says Nosheen Amir-Ebrahimi, director of portfolio valuations at Markit. “This is a particular challenge for regional banks, due to a lack of observable credit spreads for their counterparties and other comparable proxies.”

Click here to read about Markit's win in the Best Buy-Side Data Management Product category.