Markit launches new portal

The world has been calling for more transparency when it comes to credit default swaps, and Markit has just responded. It has launched a new data portal loaded with up-to-date market information about credit defaults swaps. Including prices for Markit's CDX and iTraxx indexes, last quotes for 450 of the most liquid CDS contracts; and big-volume CDS issues for North America, Europe and Asia.

This may strike some as a largely political move. The information is available already to market participants. Other audiences for this data are limited. At least the firm can now say they have moved to disclose more. What might be more informational would be services built on top of this data--I'm not sure if any APIs are available--that would take some of this information and render it in reports that non-CDS participants might find useful.   

For more:
- here's a Finextra article
- here's the portal

Related Articles:
Markit puts planned index on hold
Joint probe of CDS market underway
Is the CDS risk passing?
What to do about synthetic CDOs?
The future of CDOs?