Markit, a leading, global financial information services company, today announced the launch of Markit Commission Manager. The service helps buy-side firms manage and allocate commission credits efficiently while addressing the concerns associated with maintaining such credits with a single institution.
Markit is introducing this new service as increasing numbers of buy-side firms demand virtual aggregation of commission credits. Buy-side institutions are looking for a single platform to manage their credits in order to reduce the significant administrative burden associated with accessing numerous broker-specific platforms. Markit Commission Manager will ease that burden by enabling users to reconcile their trading commissions with multiple counterparties and then instruct those counterparties to pay for research and brokerage services – all from a single platform.
Sofia Rossato, head of Markit Research Manager at Markit, said: “Markit Commission Manager is the latest addition to our Markit Research Manager range of services. Our objective is to enable investment firms to manage their entire research workflow – including sourcing research, tracking corporate access, voting on brokers and managing research commissions – from one single platform to bring greater efficiency and internal visibility to the whole process. Markit Commission Manager is the final piece in the jigsaw. We have partnered closely with BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley to ensure the platform meets the needs of the industry.”
UBS will also be a sell-side client of the platform. Markit Commission Manager will be available to the buy-side and sell-side, and will enable the buy-side to maintain credits with their broker-dealers and use these credits to pay for third party services.
Frank Volino, head of Global Commission Management Services at Citi, said: “This platform is good news for buy-side and sell-side alike. It will allow the buy-side to use a standardised set of tools to manage their commission credits at multiple broker-dealers. We are very pleased to be part of this important industry initiative. Markit’s leading technology, coupled with their independence, places this platform in a strong position to become the industry standard.”
