Markit

Foundation and early years

Markit was founded in 2003 by Canadian Lance Uggla in St Albans, outside London, as Mark-it Partners to provide daily credit default swap (CDS) pricing.

Markit's credit derivative data sales rose during the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007 and later years.

In September 2009, Markit and Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) launched MarkitSERV, a joint venture to provide over-the-counter (OTC) derivative trade processing.

Acquisitions 2004 - 2009

Totem Valuations, a supplier of consensus valuations and month-end data, was bought by Markit in May 2004.

The International Index Company (IIC) and CDS Index Company (CDSIndexCo), owners of the iTraxx and CDX credit default swap indexes, were acquired by Markit in November 2007.

In December 2007, Markit announced the acquisition of SwapsWire.

The BOAT, Markets in Financial Instruments Directive-compliant trade reporting platform acquired by Markit from a consortium of nine investment banks In January 2008. The BOAT was owned by consortium of nine investment banks —ABN Amro, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS who had launched the system in September 2006. The Boat platform was established by these nine banks "for the collection and sale of trading data following the introduction of EU's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) in November 2007.

JPMorgan Chase's FCS Corporation, a provider of syndicated loan market portfolio and risk management software and services, including the Wall Street Office family of products, was acquired by Markit in July 2008.

Index products

On 17 January 2006, CDS IndexCo and Markit launched ABX.HE, a subprime mortgage backed credit derivative index, with plans to extend the index to underlying asset types other than home equity loans.

On 19 January 2006, it launched the Home Equity (ABX.HE) ABX. The following year in 2007, the loan credit default swap index (LCDX), a loan-only credit default swap index, was created by CDS Index Company (CDSIndexCo).

Sixteen financial institutions including: JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, RBS Greenwich, UBS and Wachovia, owned the private company called the CDS Index Company (CDS IndexCo), that developed the ABX index. By 2007 Markit marketed had acquired (CDS IndexCo). The ABX index was a credit default swap of asset-backed mortgages of 30 of the most liquid mortgage-backed bonds.

In 2013, Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange, a derivatives exchange and clearing house operator, announced four credit index futures contracts, based on the Markit CDX and Markit iTraxx indices—Markit CDX NA IG, Markit CDX NA HY, Markit iTraxx Europe (Main), and Markit iTraxx Crossover, would start in May 2013.