Effective immediately, Dow Jones Indexes will assume all responsibility for the licensing, new product development (including the construction of the portfolios), branding, marketing and sales, and public relations of TRAC-X. Also effective immediately, the indexes will be rebranded "Dow Jones TRAC-X Indexes."
By the first quarter of 2004, Dow Jones Indexes will take over responsibility for the maintenance, calculation and distribution of index values and index data.
"We are extremely pleased to have been able to quickly finalize our agreement to take over the administration of the TRAC-X suite of credit derivatives products," said Lars Hamich, executive director of global business development at Dow Jones Indexes. "As part of the agreement, we will be putting together regional Advisory Committees in the U.S., Europe and Asia, which will comprise a broad base of credit derivatives market makers. These committees will ensure that the Dow Jones TRAC-X Indexes remain an entirely neutral product created solely for the benefit of the credit derivatives market overall."
The Advisory Committees will advise Dow Jones Indexes on methodology, rebalancing and other related topics. Dow Jones Indexes will remain the ultimate decision maker.
Mr. Hamich continued, "Having the participation of the leading credit derivatives participants will ensure that as we continue to develop the suite of products, the Dow Jones TRAC-X Indexes remains as transparent and liquid as possible and provides the clients who use them with the most efficient and effective way to manage and trade credit risk.
"We have already received tremendous interest in issuing structured products, exchange-traded derivatives and ETFs based on the Dow Jones TRAC-X Indexes and expect to issue the first licenses soon."
In addition to turning over the management of the suite of TRAC-X products to Dow Jones Indexes, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan also will be opening the ownership structure to other market makers in the Dow Jones TRAC-X Indexes. This will further increase the transparency of the product.
Since its launch on April 1, 2003, over $150 billion linked to the Dow Jones TRAC-X Indexes has traded and 12 indexes have been added to this leading CDS index family. The indexes that have launched to date include: Dow Jones TRAC-X Europe, Dow Jones TRAC-X NA (North America), Dow Jones TRAC-X NA High Yield, Dow Jones TRAC-X Japan, Dow Jones TRAC-X Australia and Dow Jones TRAC-X EM (Emerging Markets).
Licensed Dow Jones TRAC-X market makers include: Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, HSBC, BNP, Credit Suisse First Boston, UBS, KBC, Nomura, Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan. The total number of institutions actually trading the CDS that underlie the Dow Jones TRAC-X Indexes numbers 15, including the market makers that were grandfathered in under the previous licensing agreement. The liquidity of the TRAC-X suite is expected to continue to increase with the addition of each new market maker.
