RBC and Markit join forces for unbundling services

Markit's RPA management service will be underpinned by RBC segregated account structure.

RBC has teamed up with IHS Markit to integrate their research payment account (RPA) services together.

Unbundling rules in MiFID II will force firms to separate their execution and research spends, with RPAs being one possible solution to ensure research funds are ringfenced.

Markit has launched an RPA Manager solution for firms to help them calculate research budgets, track and allocate payments and manage funding of the RPA.

RBC will use its existing commission sharing agreement expertise, bank status and credit rating to hold and administer RPA accounts on behalf of buy-side firms.

The combination of the services means Markit’s RPA Manager can be used to enable payments administration via RBC.

Michael Aldridge, managing director at HIS Markit, said: “The wider market supports the importance of greater transparency around commissions and payments for research; however the operational and regulatory challenges of commission unbundling and fulfilment is a complicated endeavour that remains little understood. We are delighted to work with RBC to provide a wholly integrated, scalable and, more importantly, transparent, RPA solution.”

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