Benchmark providers eye banks’ prop index disposals

The capture of “non-significant benchmarks” by incoming European regulation – such as the proprietary indexes banks offer via subscription to small groups of investors – is prompting some dealers to accelerate the sale of indexing businesses

Independent index providers are hoping to grab a lucrative slice of business from European investment banks, with several dealers understood to be accelerating planned disposals of their proprietary indexing units in response to the EU's forthcoming regulation on financial benchmarks.

A slew of new rules governing the administration, governance and use of indexes – chief among them the new EU framework due to enter force in 2017 – have left banks pondering whether to outsource index calculations