IHS Markit has launched a new portal that consolidates data for custodians and agent banks in the $1 trillion syndicated loan market.
The new portal will be a single source for information that lenders, custodians, trustees and other service providers can use to track syndicated loan holdings including position data, asset servicing activity and loan reference data.
It will combine data drawn directly from around 150 agent banks and the multiple loan market services provided by IHS Markit.
“Our agent network is technology agnostic and we process data from any system the bank has installed. This makes our portal a comprehensive repository for agent bank data and a true one-stop data solution for the market,” said Erik Woodling, executive director, IHS Markit.
In addition to consolidating the display of information, the portal shows the inter-relationship between key data points such as pay-down notices and position data. This enables lenders to investigate loan data in a self-service environment that reduces their need to query agent banks about positions and loan facilities.
In 2017, IHS Markit transmitted more than 13 million notices from a broad range of agent bank systems to nearly 8,000 lender funds.
“The data that underpin position management, trade closing and asset servicing are related,” added Sara Wagner, executive director, IHS Markit.
“The portal connects these datasets so that if a lender detects inconsistency between their books and the agent’s, they can confirm whether servicing events and trades have been properly recorded.
“Giving lenders the ability to resolve discrepancies themselves reduces their need to call or email agents for data updates.”