BOAT, a consortium of nine investment banks launched to address regulatory changes in the financial markets with respect to pre-and post-trade market data provisions, has selected Cinnober Financial Technology, a provider of marketplace systems, post-trade management and trading applications technology, to be its technology provider and Markit Group, an industry source of independent data, portfolio valuations and OTC derivatives trade processing, as its business partner. Cinnober will provide the software that will form the basis of the BOAT platform and will supply hosting and operational services, while Markit will manage all the business operations of BOAT.
BOAT was initiated to help reduce market participants’ costs by providing the pre- and post-trade reporting facilities required of investment firms as a result of the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (“MiFID”), which will come into force on 1 November 2007. BOAT will provide services to European equity dealers and will collect, validate, store, manage and distribute the requisite quote and trade report data over a real-time platform.
“The consortium is pleased to announce the appointment of Cinnober and Markit as technology and business partners to BOAT,” says Duncan Paterson, managing partner, Cygnet Consulting, speaking on behalf of all consortium members. “Both companies have proven excellence in their given fields, and we look forward to working with them to provide the European markets with a MiFID-compliant platform. BOAT will allow financial institutions to meet MiFID’s trade reporting requirements in an increasingly regulated and competitive business environment,” he adds.
“We are very happy to have been selected by BOAT, an initiative which will be central to the European markets once MiFID comes into play,” says Lance Uggla, CEO, Markit. “It has always been Markit’s goal to bring transparency and operational efficiency to the financial markets, and we are excited about our role in this new chapter,” he continues. Jan Arpi, CEO, Cinnober, states, “We look forward to applying our deep knowledge of financial transaction technology to provide BOAT with a next-generation solution to meet the forthcoming MiFID requirements.”