Deutsche Börse today announced an exclusive agreement with Fitch Ratings to deliver low-latency credit rating announcements in machine-readable format via its news feed “AlphaFlash”. The AlphaFlash Fitch Ratings feed will initially provide sovereign debt rating announcements including changes in outlook. Other types of credit ratings will be added in the next months.
“The Euro debt crisis has brought credit worthiness to the forefront of everyone’s attention. By adding Fitch ratings data, we are enabling AlphaFlash clients to instantly react to rating changes, which can have a huge market impact,” said Georg Gross, Head of Front Office Data & Analytics at Deutsche Börse. “For example, they can feed our data into their risk management tools and automatically unwind positions that may be exposed when an outlook or a rating deteriorates.”
“Fitch Solutions is pleased to offer AlphaFlash clients additional sovereign credit insight with Fitch ratings in real-time,’ said Ian Rothery, global head of Third-party Distribution and Strategic Partnerships at Fitch Solutions. “These rating announcements can easily integrate into internal systems, and help clients to more effectively manage risk.”
Fitch credit actions that will be disseminated via the AlphaFlash Fitch Ratings Feed comprise upgrades and downgrades, as well as changes in outlook for sovereigns. Currently, Fitch sovereign ratings cover over 100 countries. Other categories such as supranationals, corporates, financial institutions and structured finance will be added in the future.
AlphaFlash clients have been testing the new feed since end of August.
AlphaFlash focuses on delivering market moving events, such as key macroeconomic indicators, global treasury auctions results and corporate news. AlphaFlash subscribers can choose among several data packages, e.g. U.S., Canadian, European or Asia-Pacific economic indicators, U.S. and Global Treasury Auctions, the Chicago PMI, the Corporate News Germany feed and the new Fitch Ratings feed. AlphaFlash is available in a number of data centers across the globe, including Chicago, Secaucus (New Jersey), Washington D.C., Sao Paulo, Frankfurt, London, Sydney, Tokyo and Singapore.