Best Market Data Provider (Broker): TP ICAP

Once again, TP ICAP is the recipient of the Best Market Data Provider (Broker) in this year’s Inside Market Data & Inside Reference Data Awards, as voted by readers, making it the winner of this category an incredible nine times. 

Perhaps the secret to the firm’s enduring success in these awards lies in the fact that it is not one that stands still. Two years ago, Tullett Prebon completed its acquisition of ICAP’s global hybrid voice-broking business, creating a broker powerhouse with an extensive information product suite. Shortly after, it bought market research firm Burton-Taylor International Consulting. While Tullett Prebon laid low on the acquisition front last year, it nevertheless occupied itself with a root-and-branch review of its data and analytics division, which led to the creation of two global teams with clients and the vendor user-base very much front of mind.

The first is a channel management team—sitting in Asia, the US/Americas and Europe—that works collaboratively with the vendor community. “We are seeing lots of new market participants wanting to access our data and provide solutions and services to our mutual customers,” says Chris Dearie, COO of TP ICAP Data & Analytics. 

“We have created a dedicated team that specifically manages those types of relationships—from the biggest vendors to the more niche, asset class-specific suppliers of software or services.”

The business has also created a global product management team, tasked with creating and delivering new products following consultation with customers. Previously, TP ICAP’s Data & Analytics division launched three or four products a year. Since the team’s formation, it has launched four products in the second half of 2018 and seven in the first quarter of this year, ranging from commodity options to Dutch power, Treasury trade history and inflation data. It is likely to finish 2019 with around 15 new datasets, Dearie says.

Other products brought to market over the course of 2018 include Scandinavian and Pacific cross-asset regional data packages, and two data packages for derivatives linked to the Secured Overnight Financial Rate index—the alternative to Libor—sourced from TP ICAP’s broking businesses. The Data & Analytics division also embarked on a partnership with analytics company Credit Benchmark to produce a credit proxy solution.

Looking ahead, Dearie says the business will continue to build out the product management team by bringing in specialists to create value-add data services for customers in areas such as risk, benchmarks and indices. It also plans to launch cloud-based data services in the second half of this year in response to clients’ increasing interest in accessing data through this channel. 

Read more about the Inside Market Data & Inside Reference Data Awards 2019 winners