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The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that it selected Morningstar, Inc. to provide financial data, technology and design for the re-launch of FINRA's Market Data Center. FINRA's Market Data Center makes available to retail investors a wealth of information on a broad spectrum of financial instruments. With an emphasis on bond market information, including price information from FINRA's Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE), the Market Data Center has brought retail investors unprecedented transparency to the corporate bond market. By working with Morningstar, FINRA's revamped Market Data Center is now a comprehensive and powerful platform offering expansive market data as well as FINRA Investor Education materials and tools.
"FINRA is pleased to work with Morningstar to give retail investors new resources and features to help them make better-informed investing decisions. TRACE has been vital to bringing transparency to the bond market, and our updated Market Data Center will make it easier for investors to use and understand this and other information," said FINRA Vice President Ola Persson.
Morningstar designed the new Market Data Center and provides comprehensive intra-day pricing and fundamental data for U.S. fixed income securities, equities, options, indexes, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
"We are pleased that FINRA selected us to redesign the Market Data Center," Kunal Kapoor, head of global client solutions for Morningstar, Inc., said. "We share a common commitment with FINRA to improve transparency in the bond markets, an area where investors have traditionally had a hard time finding timely and meaningful information. The newly redesigned Center offers investors a wide breadth of financial data and tools, and better surfaces the rich set of information FINRA has to offer."
The Market Data Center provides retail investors with information on a range of financial instruments, including:
- a comprehensive source for unbiased financial information provided without advertising;
- information on a broad spectrum of financial instruments, including equities, options, mutual funds, ETFs and bonds;
- the most comprehensive free bond market information on the Web, with advanced screening tools allowing investors more flexibility to conduct searches and find the information they need;
- bond data that includes descriptions of corporate bonds, municipal securities and treasury and agency bonds, credit rating information from the three major rating agencies, TRACE- and MSRB-reported price information, scrolling real-time tickers for most recently traded bonds and links to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's (MSRB) Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA); and
- improved graphing capabilities to give investors more tools to understand market data.
FINRA is dedicated to educating investors and demystifying the bond market. To that end, FINRA has developed a comprehensive online learning center – Smart Bond Investing – where retail investors can become familiar with the full range of bond types, features and considerations when investing in bonds. FINRA Investor Alerts, including a recent warning highlighting the importance of duration risk, give investors timely information and helpful tools to assist them in making smarter financial choices.
