Under industry best practices and valuation guidelines, managers must establish robust valuation policies and governance frameworks that ensure vendor prices and/or valuation methodologies are aligned with actual market transactions.
For fixed income instruments, vendor selection is not a trivial process. With various categories of fixed income instruments and a wide spectrum of sub-classes within each category, all with unique characteristics/features, selecting a “suitable” vendor can be daunting. Different vendors perform differently within each sub-class, thereby requiring detailed analysis to select an appropriate vendor for each category and sub-class.
Our "Fixed Income Evaluations Vendor Benchmark Study 2025" provides a critical comparative analysis of leading pricing vendors broken down into sub-classes of fixed income instruments. The study focuses on pricing coverage, pricing alignment (i.e., how vendor prices align with actual transactions) and consistency of performance (i.e., current year versus previous year’s performance), among other parameters. Our results offer an unbiased perspective on the performance of fixed income pricing vendors, which is critical, as we continue to see a shift towards vendor pricing and away from broker quotes.
Study Overview
The study leverages the universe of securities held by SS&C GlobeOp’s client base, offering a broad and representative view of a diversified universe of instruments. This year’s study included leading providers such as Bloomberg BVAL, Cambridge Financial, ICE Data Services, PricingDirect, LSEG, MarketAxess, S&P Global, Trumid, and Confluence, who was participating for the first time.
The participating vendors were invited to provide daily end-of-day pricing across the universe of instruments, covering a period of three months. These prices were then assessed against actual transactions on the respective pricing dates to derive the metrics stated in the report. The objective is to present an unbiased assessment of vendors to provide meaningful insights into the accuracy, reliability and consistency of pricing, to support a vendor selection process for fixed income instruments.
Summary of Key Findings
One of the primary takeaways from our analysis of fixed income pricing is that vendor selection for fixed income securities should be performed at a sufficiently granular level to capture best-in-sub-asset-class vendor pricing capabilities.
You also need to consider:
- Market coverage: ensuring the vendor has breadth of coverage to price your open positions.
- Consistency: confirming the vendor has demonstrated their ability to consistently provide prices that are well aligned to market transactions.
Of course, cost is also a key contributing factor that needs to be balanced with all the above. SS&C, as a leading middle office service provider and hedge fund administrator, has extensive market data vendor relationships, enabling you to leverage our vendor relationships in a cost-effective and robust (yet flexible) framework. By combining cutting-edge technology with our outsourced middle office services, SS&C is uniquely positioned to tailor solutions to support your business.
Download the full "Fixed Income Evaluations Vendor Benchmark Study 2025" to gain deeper insights into the study methodology, participating vendors and key findings. Learn how to drive effective valuation practices and enhance your vendor selection and oversight process, and explore ways SS&C can support you.
