Traders, asset managers and millions of retail investors depend on municipal bond pricing for fair and robust end of day valuations. With Refinitiv data now used by FTSE Russell for its U.S. municipal bond index, what are the benefits of our evaluated pricing service for all fixed income market participants?
- Accurate and independent municipal bond evaluated pricing services ensure asset managers provide fair and robust end-of-day valuations to retail investors.
- FTSE Russell is using Refinitiv’s evaluated pricing data for its new Municipal Bond index, creating additional benefits for fund managers, financial institutions and investors alike.
- With access to extensive pricing data on more than one million active municipal bonds, Refinitiv offers the breadth, quality, and reliability required by all fixed income market participants.
Nearing US$4 trillion in debt outstanding, U.S. municipal bonds represent one of the oldest and most significant fixed income markets in the world.
It’s also a market that never stands still, from the adoption of trading electronification and meeting of regulatory demands, to responding to the latest economic and political developments.
One thing that remains constant, however, is the need for accurate, independent pricing.
This not only plays a vital role for traders and asset managers, it also makes a real difference to the millions of retail investors who rely on their fund managers to provide fair and robust end-of-day valuations, something which is hard to do given the approximately 60,000 municipalities that have issued millions of securities over the years.
Evaluated pricing service
With access to extensive pricing data on more than one million active municipal bonds, Refinitiv offers the breadth, quality, and reliability required by all market participants.
And when we say all market participants, that includes index providers.
In April 2019, the FTSE US Municipal Tax-Exempt Investment Grade Bond Index was launched — with pricing supplied by Refinitiv.
By choosing Refinitiv’s evaluated pricing service for its new index, FTSE Russell — a leading global provider of benchmarks and analytics — recognized the quality of our pricing, as well as its independence.
That’s because it is crucial that the pricing behind any FTSE index is agnostic.
Underlying that independence is Refinitiv’s complete transparency into how a price is derived: price recipes are available as are data sources used, and information on how prices are validated.
End of day portfolio valuations
Providing pricing to FTSE is not just good news for Refinitiv, it is good news for the thousands of fund managers, financial institutions, and investors who rely on our municipal bond evaluated pricing services.
Not only does our role in the new FTSE index support the quality of our pricing, it also creates more specific benefits.
As subscribers receive the same pricing information as the index they benchmark against, end-of-day portfolio valuations will be more consistent and tracking errors will be minimized.
And thanks to the additional pricing methodology information made available by Refinitiv, subscribers are positioned to spot trends and potentially even market opportunities.
Municipal bond coverage
So, what makes our evaluated pricing not only the choice of the FTSE, but also thousands of financial institutions around the world?
- Comprehensive fixed income bond prices from an independent, global evaluated pricing source that covers over 2.6 million fixed-income securities, derivatives, and bank loans.
- A model that rapidly adjusts to changing market conditions, offering proven reliability and consistency even in volatile markets.
- Strict validation procedures include quality checks that guarantee the absence of stale prices and/or outlying values.
- Access to the experts through content service managers who are on hand to support any technical, price data, and functional queries.
- Faster delivery with valuations delivered at intraday and market closes.
As a completely independent third-party pricing provider, with no conflicts of interest, we deliver pricing that you can rely on.
With political and economic uncertainty likely to be a constant for investors, municipal bond markets will remain a key focus for those seeking both security and yield.
Refinitiv is committed to providing the certainty, speed and quality of pricing that all market participants require now — and in the future.
By working in an open and collaborative way with customers, our pricing service will continue to help you to unlock and identify the many opportunities that bond markets offer.
