JP Morgan has built a sizeable corporate trust business servicing issuers. Now it is looking to turn what it has learnt as trustee and transaction manager to Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDO) and CDO-related structures – such as CBOs, CLOs, and synthetics – into a web-based data source and tool.
The Institutional Trust Services group at JPMorgan announced today that it was joining forces with the risk measurement experts RiskMetrics Group to equip CDO market participants with a consistent and comprehensive source of CDO market data, news and research, plus performance analysis, benchmarking and transparency and liquidity assessment tools. The new service rejoices in the title of CDOVantage, perhaps because it offers users a “vantage point.” Being open to all-comers, it certainly does not look as if it will confers a particular “advantage” on anybody.
“CDOVantage’s objective is to create an inclusive, non-proprietary, Web-based platform that will serve as a community for CDO market participants – trustees, investors, CDO collateral managers, rating agencies, underwriters, and the investment banks structuring these transactions,” explains Steve Patterson, Senior Vice President, Institutional Trust Services’ CDO business executive. “JPMorgan has always been a pioneer in the CDO marketplace, and we are excited to be the first trustee to participate in this effort. Because CDOVantage is committed to furthering the interests of the entire CDO community, trustees and other community members will benefit from the common modelling and reporting standards and the marketplace efficiencies this creates, while retaining their unique brand identities as providers in this market.”
JPMorgan claims market leadership in the CDO industry. Since 1989, it has acted in over 350 CDO transactions, involving 20 investment banks and over 150 fund managers worldwide.