thinkFolio and Investor Access Advance Fixed Income Primary Market Workflows

04 August 2020

thinkFolio, our leading multi-asset class investment management platform, has integrated with Investor Access, making it the first portfolio and order management platform to provide seamless fixed income primary market workflow for the buy side community.

The integration allows thinkFolio front office users to monitor new issues via the Investor Access Deal Monitor platform, subscribe to those assets, and trigger new security information to thinkFolio and client downstream applications. The workflow and cohesive tool kit leverages the Investor Access Deal Services API and FIX messaging, providing users with the ability to orchestrate allocations at point of order creation and to initiate all required compliance checks before placement.

"The inertia driving further electronification of fixed income trading activity is noted and this theme has now evolved to the primary markets," said Brett Schechterman, Managing Director and Global Head of thinkFolio at IHS Markit. "Our colleagues from Investor Access have been at the forefront in working with key consortiums across the capital markets with the objective of optimizing the primary issuance process for fixed income securities. The thinkFolio team is thrilled to contribute to a collaboration which will result in streamlined primary market workflow, reduced operational risk, and enhanced compliance and audit capabilities for our clients' dealing operations."

"As a foundation for working collaboratively with our buyside stakeholders, we have initiated this 'open' integration effort with our colleagues from thinkFolio," said Ted Douglas, Managing Director and Co-Head of Fixed Income for IHS Markit's Global Markets Group. "Embedding Investor Access within leading buy-side trading technology platforms will provide holistic straight-through processing benefits for our primary market clients and the entire ecosystem. We are delighted that our collective efforts and the workflow synergies we've deployed in close partnership with thinkFolio will streamline the end to end process for their clients and connect the marketplace to the primary fixed income new issue market."

About thinkFolio

thinkFolio from IHS Markit is a leading multi-asset investment management platform delivering sophisticated capabilities across Portfolio Modelling, Order Management & Trading, Cash & FX Management, Compliance and the Investment Book of Record (IBOR). The platform is delivered as a managed service, supporting investment firms that want to reduce costs, maximize flexibility, enhance scale and achieve time-to-market objectives.

About Investor Access

Investor Access connects investors and banks on a global independent electronic platform for new issuance in capital markets, covering distribution of deal terms and communication of orders and allocations. The Investor Access platform continues to add new users globally with 455 institutions and now includes seven of the top 10 global fixed income investors by AUM. In addition to growing buy side users, the number of banks on the platform has also rapidly expanded to reach 55.

Investor Access was used in 94% of Euro, Sterling and Nordic currency Investment Grade new issues globally and 70% of all US Dollar deals in Asia during 2020 to date. And, several US domestic deals have also been published over the platform. Order placement by investors globally via Investor Access rose by almost 100% in Q2 2020 versus Q2 2019.

The platform comprises IssueLaunch (used by the sell side) and Deal Monitor (used by the buy side) and builds on IHS Markit's existing fixed-income suite, including IssueBook (used by over 100 banks) and IssueNet (used by over 170 banks).

IHS Markit provides industry-leading data, software and technology platforms and managed services to tackle some of the most difficult challenges in financial markets. We help our customers better understand complicated markets, reduce risk, operate more efficiently and comply with financial regulation.