BOAT, a consortium of banks launched in September 2006 to address regulatory changes in the financial markets with respect to pre- and post-trade market data provision, yesterday announced that Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Dresdner Kleinwort, JPMorgan and Royal Bank of Scotland have selected BOAT to help them meet the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive’s (MiFID) pre- and post-trade reporting obligations.
“We are delighted that these key customers have chosen to use the BOAT platform in future for their post-trade reporting,” comments Will Meldrum, managing director at Markit, the firm that will manage BOAT’s business operations. “This will aid transparency and operational efficiency in the over-the-counter equity markets,” he continues.
BOAT aims to provide market participants with the pre- and post-trade reporting facilities required by MiFID, which comes into force on 1 November 2007. Under the MiFID rules, all over-the-counter (OTC) trades in equities in the European Economic Area must be reported and published to the market. BOAT is open to all market participants.
“While MiFID is universally seen as a positive initiative by banks that have a strong focus on execution, compliance with reporting requirements commands heavy investment, especially in terms of data,” notes Guillaume Lemarchand, co-head of global execution services at BNP Paribas. “By teaming up with the consortium, we will minimise costs and be able to invest more in tailored client-specific products and services,” he adds.
The nine investment banks comprising the original BOAT consortium are ABN AMRO, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and UBS.