Markit Named Best Pricing and Valuation Provider

London - Markit, the leading provider of independent data, portfolio valuations and OTC derivatives trade processing to the global financial markets, has won the Best Pricing and Valuation Service award at the inaugural Buy-Side Technology Awards in London on 2 November 2007.

The panel of judges included Buy-Side Technology’s Editor Victor Anderson, US Editor Stewart Eisenhart, and Staff Writer Joel Clarke; Catherine Doherty, Principal at Investit; and consultants from AITE Group, Morse and Deloitte Consulting.

The judges were impressed with the breadth of Markit’s product coverage, its wide range of price contribution partners and its commitment to design products specific to buy-side needs.

Jeff Gooch, Executive Vice President and Head of Portfolio Valuations and Trade Processing at Markit, said: “It is very rewarding to see our efforts to provide the buy-side with an all-compassing service acknowledged. Recent market volatility has highlighted the importance of independent portfolio valuations, and Markit’s service stands out for the quality of its data and the thorough tolerance checks on results by expert analysts.”

Victor Anderson, Editor, Buy-Side Technology, said: “Markit has established itself as the benchmark against which all other independent pricing and valuation services are measured. Buy-side demand for its services is likely to remain strong in the long-term, given the challenges facing long-only asset managers and hedge funds when it comes to pricing credit derivatives and valuing portfolios comprising such instruments. Investors are increasingly on the look-out for funds boasting transparent and reliable third-party portfolio valuation techniques, which can only be a good thing for Markit and the investment management industry in general.”

As a private company with sixteen of the world’s leading financial institutions as its partners, Markit has unparalleled access to a valuable dataset spanning credit, equities and the broader OTC derivative universe.

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For further information, please contact:

Caroline Lumley
Associate, Corporate Communications
Markit
Telephone: +44 20 7260 2047
Email: caroline.lumley@markit.com

About Markit

Markit is the leading provider of independent data, portfolio valuations and OTC derivatives trade processing to the global financial markets. The company receives daily data contributions from 90 dealing firms, and its services are used by almost 1,000 institutions to enhance trading operations, reduce risk and manage compliance.

For more information, see www.markit.com