Markit, a financial information services company, today announced that the standard trading convention for Markit CMBX indices will change to price from spread effective April 20, 2009. The change will apply to all Markit CMBX indices of every rating.
Markit CMBX dealers voted to change the standard trading convention in order to increase price transparency by making the upfront value of index contracts explicit.
The Markit CMBX is an index of credit default swaps referencing 25 commercial mortgage-backed securities. The index provides investors with an efficient, standardized tool to gain synthetic exposure to the CMBS asset class.