Markit Ltd. was a British financial information and services company with over 4,000 employees, founded in 2003 as an independent source of credit derivative pricing. The company provides independent

data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpret ...

, trade processing of derivatives, foreign exchange and loans, customised technology platforms and managed services. The company aims to enhance transparency, reduce

financial risk Financial risk is any of various types of risk associated with financing, including financial transactions that include company loans in risk of default. Often it is understood to include only downside risk, meaning the potential for financia ...

and improve operational

efficiency Efficiency is the often measurable ability to avoid wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a desired result. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without ...

. Its client base includes institutional participants in the financial marketplace. On 12 July 2016, Markit and IHS Inc. merged in an all-stock merger of equals to form

IHS Markit IHS Markit Ltd was an information services provider that completed a merger with S&P Global in 2022. Headquartered in London, it was formed in 2016 with the merger of IHS Inc. and Markit Ltd. History IHS Information Handling Services (IHS) "was ...

. IHS Markit later merged with S&P Global on 28 February 2022.

Background

Markit was founded in 2003 by Canadian

Lance Uggla IHS Markit Ltd was an information services provider that completed a merger with S&P Global in 2022. Headquartered in London, it was formed in 2016 with the merger of IHS Inc. and Markit Ltd. History IHS Information Handling Services (IHS) " ...

Companies House information in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman ...

, outside London, as Mark-it Partners to provide daily

credit default swap A credit default swap (CDS) is a financial swap agreement that the seller of the CDS will compensate the buyer in the event of a debt default (by the debtor) or other credit event. That is, the seller of the CDS insures the buyer against som ...

(CDS) pricing. Markit's

credit derivative In finance, a credit derivative refers to any one of "various instruments and techniques designed to separate and then transfer the '' credit risk''"The Economist ''Passing on the risks'' 2 November 1996 or the risk of an event of default of a co ...

data sales rose during the

subprime mortgage crisis The United States subprime mortgage crisis was a multinational financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010 that contributed to the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. It was triggered by a large decline in US home prices after the col ...

in 2007 and later years. In September 2009, Markit and

Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is an American post-trade financial services company providing clearing and settlement services to the financial markets. It performs the exchange of securities on behalf of buyers and sellers ...

(DTCC) launched MarkitSERV, a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

to provide over-the-counter (OTC)

derivative In mathematics, the derivative of a function of a real variable measures the sensitivity to change of the function value (output value) with respect to a change in its argument (input value). Derivatives are a fundamental tool of calculus. ...

trade processing. On 5 May 2014 Markit Ltd., a company registered in

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , es ...

, filed for an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

(IPO), to be listed on the

NASDAQ Global Select Market The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

under the symbol MRKT. The stock began trading on 19 June 2014 with an initial pricing of $24 per share.

Company performance

By 2009 Markit had "1,000 institutions as clients - including investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers, central banks, regulators, rating agencies, and insurance companies." In 2012, the company had annual revenues of US$860 million, with 3000 employees. In 2012, Markit had a $5 billion valuation. By 2013 Markit served 3,000 institutions across the financial markets which include investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers, central banks, regulators, auditors, fund administrators and insurance companies.

Acquisitions

Totem Valuations, a supplier of consensus valuations and month-end data, was bought by Markit in May 2004 The International Index Company (IIC) and CDS Index Company (CDSIndexCo), owners of the iTraxx and CDX

credit default swap index A credit default swap index is a credit derivative used to hedge credit risk or to take a position on a basket of credit entities. Unlike a credit default swap, which is an over the counter credit derivative, a credit default swap index is a com ...

es, were acquired by Markit in November 2007 SwapsWire's acquisition by Markit announced In December 2007., The BOAT,

Markets in Financial Instruments Directive Markets in Financial Instruments Directive 20142014/65/EU commonly known as MiFID 2 (Markets in financial instruments directive 2), is a legal act of the European Union. Together with Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 it provides a legal framework f ...

-compliant trade reporting platform acquired by Markit from a

consortium A consortium (plural: consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources ...

of nine

investment bank Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing i ...

s In January 2008. The BOAT was owned by

of nine

s —

ABN Amro ABN or abn may refer to: Companies * ABN AMRO Group, a Dutch bank group * ABN AMRO, sometimes referred to as "ABN" in shorthand, is a Dutch state-owned bank * Algemene Bank Nederland, a now-defunct Dutch bank Radio, news and television organizati ...

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi ( stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomera ...

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York St ...

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, Ho ...

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tr ...

Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment ba ...

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

and

UBS UBS Group AG is a multinational investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres as the largest Swi ...

who had launched the system in September 2006. The Boat platform was established by these nine banks "for the collection and sale of trading data following the introduction of EU's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) in November 2007.

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, t ...

's FCS Corporation, a provider of syndicated loan market

portfolio Portfolio may refer to: Objects * Portfolio (briefcase), a type of briefcase Collections * Portfolio (finance), a collection of assets held by an institution or a private individual * Artist's portfolio, a sample of an artist's work or a c ...

and risk management software and services, including the Wall Street Office family of products, was acquired by Markit in July 2008. Fidelity Information Services's ClearPar, an electronic

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

-trade-processing platform, was acquired by Markit in October 2009 which helped Markit to work with DTCC to improve the processing of

syndicated loan A syndicated loan is one that is provided by a group of lenders and is structured, arranged, and administered by one or several commercial banks or investment banks known as lead arrangers. The syndicated loan market is the dominant way for l ...

Index products

On 17 January 2006 CDS IndexCo and Markit launched ABX.HE, a subprime mortgage backed credit derivative index, with planned to extend the index to underlying asset types other than home equity loans. They launched the Home Equity (ABX.HE) ABX on 19 January 2006. Others, such as Credit Cards (ABX.CC), Student Loans (ABX.SL), Auto Loans (ABX.AU) were to be announced in the future. The Loan credit default swap index (LCDX), a loan-only

index was created in 2007 by CDS Index Company (CDSIndexCo). Sixteen major financial institutions,

JPMorgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the w ...

Barclays Capital Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank ...

BNP Paribas BNP Paribas is a French international banking group, founded in 2000 from the merger between Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP, "National Bank of Paris") and Paribas, formerly known as the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas. The full name of the grou ...

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, ...

, RBS Greenwich,

and

Wachovia Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total asset ...

, owned the private company called the CDS Index Company (CDS IndexCo), that developed the ABX index. Markit Group Limited marketed the ABX index, and by 2007, had acquired (CDS IndexCo). The ABX index was a

of asset-backed mortgages of 30 of the most liquid mortgage-backed bonds. Atlanta-based

IntercontinentalExchange Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) is an American company formed in 2000 that operates global financial exchanges and clearing houses and provides mortgage technology, data and listing services. Listed on the Fortune 500, S&P 500, and Russ ...

(NYSE: ICE), a derivatives exchange and clearing house operator, announced four credit index futures contracts, based on the Markit CDX and Markit iTraxx indices—Markit CDX NA IG, Markit CDX NA HY, Markit iTraxx Europe (Main), and Markit iTraxx Crossover, would start in May 2013. The contracts were subject to review by the

Commodity Futures Trading Commission The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an independent agency of the US government created in 1974 that regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, which includes futures, swaps, and certain kinds of options. The Commodity Exchange Act ...

Management and employees

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Markit had 150 employees in 2003, and by the end of 2013 had around 3200 employees across the globe. Management per June 2016:

Shareholders

In 2013, different banks held 51% of Markit shares.
20% of shares is held by Markit employees and executives.
As of October 2013,

General Atlantic General Atlantic (also known as "GA") is an American growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for global growth companies, headquartered in New York, United States. The firm was founded in 1980 as the captive investment team for ...

is the biggest independent shareholder with 11% of shares. General Atlantic's CEO William E. Ford serves on the board of directors.

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets u ...

bought 10% of shares in 2013 for $500 million, thereby valuing the company at $5 bn.

Divisions, products and services

Markit organizes itself in three divisions:

References

External links

* {{IHS Markit Financial services companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in the City and District of St Albans Financial services companies established in 2003 Financial data vendors 2003 establishments in England Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq 2014 initial public offerings