Interactive Data Corporation’s Real-Time Services business has implemented a series of initiatives designed to manage the significant growth in the number of financial instruments and in data volume that is expected to result from the implementation of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) on 1 November, 2007.
Interactive Data estimates that data volume will continue to increase at a rapid pace and the number of new financial instrument identifiers entering the market could range from the hundreds-of-thousands to the millions, depending on the amount of different currencies in which each security will be available.
By leveraging experience gained from successfully managing the massive financial data volume growth in the U.S. markets, Interactive Data has identified and eliminated many potential bottlenecks throughout its technology infrastructure.
Interactive Data has also made a number of significant technology enhancements in recent months that are designed to reduce latency and increase data throughput, including implementing a series of new 64-bit dual processing servers, re-architecting key software components to distribute data across multiple processors, and upgrading messaging and optimizing synchronization between ticker plant components.
The Company’s technology reviews and enhancements are designed to help ensure that a vast universe of data, including new MiFID-related financial instruments, can be delivered with low latency through PlusFeedSM, Interactive Data’s consolidated digital datafeed.
To help customers more effectively manage the array of new MiFID-related instruments, Interactive Data plans to introduce new security identifiers that can make critical information, such as the currency of a transaction, more easily accessible to clients. In addition, Interactive Data has also introduced a number of offerings that are designed to help customers comply with MiFID.
“Interactive Data places a strong emphasis on understanding the impact that regulations can have on our customers,” says Mark Hepsworth, president of Interactive Data Real-Time Services. “It is through this in-depth knowledge and our experience in managing massive amounts of data that we can effectively focus resources across our company to strengthen our technology infrastructure, optimize data collection, processing and delivery, and introduce new services that are designed to help our customers more easily comply with regulations such as MiFID.”