Markit Unveils Open Messaging Network

Markit has launched an open messaging network that will enable people in all
parts of the global financial services industry to communicate and share information seamlessly.

The network is designed to enable communication between market participants which to date has been hampered by the lack of system interoperability. The new network allows messaging platforms in the price discovery and pre and post trade operations, to connect to each other.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have joined the network and will use the federation and directory services at the enterprise level. They will also invite their customers to join the network.

Markit Collaboration Services is open to any participant in the financial industry, and thousands of buyside firms, banks, exchanges, interdealer brokers and vendors are expected to join the network.

Markit Collaboration Services allows users to see availability, send instant messages, use video and chat rooms, and exchange documents across disparate messaging platforms. The service is based on federating messaging platforms to make it cost effective for institutions to offer the benefits of a cross-industry collaboration network to employees throughout their enterprise. The federation service is powered by NextPlane, a provider of cloud-based unified communications federation services for collaborative business communities.

The new network also provides the first open directory for the financial services industry, enabling people to find, communicate and collaborate with one another. The messaging and directory services can be embedded in third party applications, workflows and other networks, extending the functionality of trading, processing, research and other applications.

Thomson Reuters is a founding member of the network and will federate its instant messaging tool, Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger, with the network. Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger was built using open-based standards to offer a secure, federated messaging system that facilitates collaboration across the financial markets.It already connects to other
messaging platforms such as AOL and Yahoo!. It has a community of over 200,000 financial professionals from more than 170 countries that will be able to communicate across the new network.

Lance Uggla, chief executive officer of Markit, said: “We’re excited to launch this new collaboration network which is the first of its kind. By offering them an interoperable collaboration system, we will change how financial markets operate. Having
Thomson Reuters and many of the industry’s major players as part of the network underlines the value of our proposition.”

David Craig, president of Financial & Risk at Thomson Reuters, said: “We are excited to work with Markit and the industry as a founding member of this new open messaging initiative which aims to break down the last barriers to cross-industry communication. This will significantly help the industry and will enable our customers to connect to their clients and counterparties regardless of the messaging tools they are using.”

Perry Vais, cohead of quantitative strategy at BlueMountain Capital Management, said: “We envision using the new network to connect easily with trading desks, prime brokers, research departments and others in the market. With a single point of access to multiple messaging systems, the network helps us work with anyone and minimizes the technology required.”

Zar Amrolia, cohead of Fixed Income & Currencies at Deutsche Bank, said: “This new network allows us to connect disparate systems and improve the quality of communication and therefore service we provide to clients. We welcome any initiative that improves access and communication across markets and with our clients. The service will refine our back office technology footprint, whilst bringing efficiencies to our client facing franchise across the bank.”

Heidi Johnson, managing director and head of Collaboration Services at Markit, said: “All participants in the financial markets are invited to join this open network. We believe our technology will transform the way people communicate, access information and connect systems and people. Having a technology-agnostic network will open up exciting new ways to connect systems and people.”

The ability to federate enables firms on the network to optimise the investments they have made in messaging and compliance infrastructure. Federation supports all XMPP and SIP-based
messaging, including Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger, Microsoft Lync and Cisco Jabber.

The network includes a security and privacy framework that provides participating firms with full ownership of their messaging. Message content is encrypted and is not stored by the network.

The network is supported by the Vantage governance platform by Actiance to ensure all interaction on the network adheres to member company policies and regulatory standards.