IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, today announced that it was named Best Data Provider for Fixed Income and Credit at the 2018 Fund Technology and WSL Awards. The awards recognize technology providers, data specialists and exchanges for innovation and exceptional service to mutual funds and global asset managers.

“It is an honor to be recognized as the leading provider of fixed income and credit data for mutual funds, asset managers and the broader financial community,” said Kiet Tran, managing director and global head of Pricing and Reference Data at IHS Markit. “IHS Markit offers the most in-depth pricing and reference data across asset classes, which helps firms determine the daily value and liquidity of securities.”

IHS Markit’s fixed income pricing service provides independent pricing and liquidity data for fixed income instruments to support risk management, price verification, compliance and trading workflows. The firm’s team of more than 100 fixed income expert evaluators aggregates robust transaction data to offer a best-in-class pricing solution covering over 2.5 million corporate and sovereign bonds, municipal bonds, securitized products, bank loans and CDS.

In 2017, IHS Markit enhanced its liquidity metrics for fixed income products, to help mutual funds comply with the liquidity rules in SEC Rule 22-4. The firm also joined with MSCI to introduce a best-of-breed solution that enables mutual funds and ETFs to implement comprehensive liquidity risk management programs. 

Currently, more than $130 billion in ETF assets under management (AUM) are benchmarked to fixed income indexes from IHS Markit and more than $5 trillion of notional OTC derivatives are linked to the firm’s tradable CDS indexes. In addition, a record $16 billion of standardized total return swaps referencing Markit iBoxx indexes traded in December 2017.

On an enterprise basis, IHS Markit is one of the largest providers of alternative data to asset managers. The firm provides quantitative and qualitative data spanning the defense, energy, financial services, technology and transportation sectors, as well as economic forecasting and risk analysis to help firms conduct sophisticated analyses of risk and opportunity on a regional and sector basis.

An independent panel of industry experts selected the winners of the 2018 Fund Technology and WSL Awards based on competitive performance indicators over the last 12 months.