IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a provider of analytics and financial markets solutions, has formed a partnership with Blockchain startup Lukka to include its Reference Data and Lukka Prime into IHS Markit portfolio of data and valuation products.
Through this partnership, IHS Markit comes forward with two relevant data packages for their clients looking to add digital assets to existing portfolios and provide them with the data they are accustomed to as traditional players. This collaboration enables funds, like Cryptocurrencies and other digital assets to be added to their portfolios in compliance with regulatory guidance.
Lukka’s software and data solutions are primarily used to transform blockchain data into easy-to-use information that can support operations, such as financial and regulatory reporting. These capabilities will now extend through IHS Markit popular suite of data offerings, in order to provide institutional players with reliable pricing and reference data to support investment operations.
“Our partnership with Lukka will deliver financial institutions seamless access to a best-of-breed solution for Fair Market Value pricing on cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. As the demand for these innovative holdings continues to grow, this collaboration expands the strength of our comprehensive and industry-leading valuations expertise, while bringing financial markets additional transparency on complex and dynamic assets,” said Tasha Gonska, Head of Americas Business Development for IHS Markit Pricing, Valuations and Reference Data.
Markit Teams with Cobalt to Re-engineer FX Post-Trade
The first offering added to IHS Markit is Lukka Reference Data, which provides mappings to over 90 trading venues and covers thousands of digital assets. The second offering, Lukka Prime, is a Fair Market Value (FMV)-based pricing service for digital assets, providing fiat values for crypto balances based on an executed price from a suggested principal market.
The move comes as big players in the financial sector are increasing their wager that distributed ledger technologies like blockchain will be key to leadership in the future.
Open a Trading Account Today With These Recommended Brokers
IHS Markit had taken an undisclosed minority stake last year in London-based technology business, Cobalt, which aims to modernize transactions settlement in the FX market. The startup initiative leverages blockchain technology to reduce risk and cut post-trade costs by up to 80 percent, the UK group claims.
MarkitServ, IHS Markit’s post-trade OTC derivatives processor, has connected to Cobalt in a bid to deliver new post-trade processing services for the foreign exchange markets.
“As traditional funds and businesses add crypto assets to their portfolios and balance sheets, they look to already trusted service providers, such as IHS Markit to offer equivalent services,” said Robert Materazzi, CEO of Lukka.
