CreditTrade plans to offer web-based data service

CreditTrade, the London-based interdealer-broker and provider of credit derivatives data, plans to launch a new web-based data service, CreditTrade Insight, early next year.

The service, which will undergo beta-testing in late November, provides access to all CreditTrade's credit derivatives data as well as tailored search, graphics and data download facilities. It also includes a new set of credit default swap indexes based on various categorisation sets, such as sector, currency and rating.

CreditTrade Insight is aimed at all financial service companies with exposure to the credit markets, ranging from large market-makers to smaller banks, as well as fund managers, insurers, reinsurers and corporates.

"We designed the new service following feedback from market participants," said CreditTrade's head of product management, Hayley Johnson. "With new players such as asset managers and insurers entering the credit derivatives market, there has been an increased need to look at credit derivatives data in a more user-friendly fashion."

The service will provide web access to a broad range of CreditTrade's credit data, with more than 500,000 credit default swap price points dating back to January 1997. CreditTrade has also included 60 indexes based on credit default swaps and specific classifications, allowing users to compare individual credits with peer benchmarks.

The data will be provided on an end-of-day basis because the market is still sensitive about allowing all users to access live prices, said Johnson. End-of-day updates will include more than 1,500 default swaps market quotes, trades and benchmark prices and include volatility, liquidity and performance information.

CreditTrade said it is currently working on a second phase of its CreditTrade Insight product, but it declined to provide further details.

A number of interdealer brokers have sought to push their credit derivatives data to customers via the internet, including GFI.