News Article

CMA and Julius Finance Enhance CDX and iTraxx Index Tranche Valuation

CMA, the credit information specialist, today announced a partnership with New York based research and technology firm, Julius Finance

CMA, the credit information specialist, today announced a partnership with New York based research and technology firm, Julius Finance to provide full term structures for CDX and iTraxx index tranches. The deal combines observed data from CMA's unique buy-side consortium combined with the advanced mathematical modeling capabilities of Julius Finance's, JuliusBridge^TM service. The full data set will be accessible through CMA DataVision.

Ongoing volatility in the OTC credit market has lead to an increased demand from buy-side institutions for a market standard pricing model and this will be the first time that a consistently accurate, independent model for calculating notoriously complex tranche values has been made widely available.

"CMA is committed to providing greater price transparency in the OTC credit market," said Laurent Paulhac, CMA's CEO. "Combining data from CMA's buy-side consortium with the advanced technologies of Julius Finance empowers investors and risk managers with a more accurate and reliable view of tranche values as, until now, derived quotes have been calculated from prices that were not market traded but sourced from sell-side institutions."

Peter Cotton, CEO of Julius Finance explained that "As the market for credit derivatives continues to see phenomenal growth there is increased demand from investing institutions and risk professionals for high-quality pricing information on traded and non-traded CDS index tranches. CMA is widely recognised as an innovator in the CDS market and we are delighted to work with them to further enhance their valuation processes. The JuliusBridge^TM service allows CMA to add value for clients without the need for software installation or inhouse model calibration. The Julius data enhancement uses new modeling techniques which make as few assumptions as possible and allow the data to speak for itself".

CMA DataVision is a high quality, same day, consensus based price verification data service for CDS, Indices and Tranches, used primarily for mark-to-market, flash P&L, research and analytics. It is sourced from 30 buyside firms including leading Hedge Funds, Asset Managers and the buy-side desks of global Investment Banks. DataVision data is delivered by 5pm London and 5pm New York time, giving customers a timely market view.

About Julius Finance
Julius Finance, based in New York, is a provider of advanced services and solutions to participants of credit markets. Julius Finance develops valuation and risk management analytics for correlation trading and fixed income investment. The JuliusBridge product is available as software-as-a-service whereby Julius Finance performs the analytics utilizing a grid of high performance computers to return results within reasonable timeframes. The JuliusBridge analytics engine has been able to reproduce market prices both before and during the current credit market situation.

JuliusBridge^TM is a trademark of Julius Finance Corporation.

For more information please contact Nicholas de Jong:-
Email: press@juliusfinance.com
Web: www.juliusfinance.com
Office: Julius Finance Corporation, 5 Penn Plaza, Level 23, New York, NY 10001, USA
Phone: + 1 646 378 2123

About CMA
CMA pioneers ways to improve the effectiveness of credit market professionals. CMA's real-time pricing service (QuoteVision^TM) and data (DataVision^TM) are used by investors in over 130 leading investment banks, hedge funds and asset managers worldwide to improve trading performance and provide valuable information, not only for front-office but also risk, finance and research groups. CMA DataVision is available to more than 260,000 users via the Bloomberg Professional(R) service (CMA ). CMA has offices in London and New York and is a wholly owned subsidiary of CME Group.

QuoteVision^TM and DataVision^TM are trademarks of CMA

For further information please contact Simon Mott:
Email: simon.mott@cmavision.com
Web: www.cmavision.com
UK: CMA, Haymarket House, 1 Oxendon Street, London SW1Y 4EE United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (0) 207 925 8400
US: CMA, 370 Lexington Avenue, Suite 701, New York NY 10017 USA
Phone: + 1 646 351 8787