Tokyo Stock Exchange Group, Inc. (TSE Group) and Markit Group Limited agreed upon a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on October 28.
Under the terms of the MOU, the TSE Group and Markit Group Limited will work together to examine the feasibilities of potential business alliances for the following areas (including consideration of establishment of a joint venture company if necessary):
- Joint promotion/distribution of appraisal and valuation services for financial instruments
- Joint developments of new indices in the Japanese market and promotion of utilization of various indices (including ones owned by Markit) for actual trading activities
- Distribution tie-ups for information contents
- Cooperate to promote the improvement of the infrastructure of post trade operations in the OTC derivatives market in Japan
Mr. Atsushi Saito, President and CEO of the TSE Group, remarked on the occasion “Recently, there have been growing demands for a more transparent evaluation of portfolios, as well as more reliable and efficient post trade operations for financial instruments. Under these circumstances, we are very pleased to sign an MOU with Markit Group Limited. This opportunity will allow us to examine the possibility of business cooperation in such areas as providing objective appraisal services for financial instruments, developing new financial products using knowledge of indices owned by the company, and promoting electronic post trade administration for OTC derivatives, etc."
Mr. Katsumi Mizutani, President of Markit Group Japan K.K commented: “Proper delivery of price information for the assets with less liquidity is getting more important and market participants desired to obtain a means/solution to prepare for volatile market conditions. At the same time, promotion of STP processing in OTC post trade activities will contribute a lot to reduce operational risks in the financial institutions. It is important to develop momentum in the market by making this announcement of a partnership between two major companies in the Japanese capital market.
The TSE Group and Markit Group Limited will establish a task force / study team to conduct discussions on the feasibility of the areas mentioned above. We will make an announcement on the details when we have reached a specific agreement.
