Need greater market transparency? There is data for that, and that has been the challenge created by such broad market regulations like the Dodd-Frank Act and MiFID II.
"Although we're consuming more data than ever, I think we're really just at the tip of the data-consumption iceberg," Lynn Martin, president and COO at ICE Data Services, told Markets Media. "Market trading strategies are increasing in complexity. The only way to continue to evolve that complexity is to continue to provide a variety of data inputs."
Consumers might classify the "new" data as fundamental data or raw data packaged differently, she added.
And as long as exchange-traded funds and passive investment strategies remain popular with investors, ICE Data Services will continue to develop new product lines, such as liquidity metrics and enhanced reference data, to aid clients in their hunt for alpha and manage risk in a more timely manner while meeting their regulatory obligations.
The vendor currently is working on an offering related to the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book, Martin noted.
"Firms are not just looking at how to participate in today's markets; they're looking at the compliance requirements associated with participating in these markets," she added.
ICE Data Services always weighs buy-versus build decisions when it seeks to fill out its product portfolio. Most recently, the vendor has favored smaller and more strategic deals.
"TMX Atrium certainly was a great example where we saw the capability to expand our global network even further and offer new services to the more latency-sensitive customers through that acquisition," said Martin. "In the Bank of America Merrill Lynch index business, we saw an opportunity to really expand our index footprint given the breadth, scale and global adoption of those indices as established benchmarks."
More recently, the vendor announced partnerships with real-time event alerting vendor Dataminr and satellite imagery provider Clipper Data.
"Both are now integrated into our ICE Instant Messenger platform, allowing customers to receive valuable, real-time energy market alerts in a timely fashion," she said.
Looking to the future, Martin expects that ICE Data Services will add more alternative data content as well as integrate artificial intelligence into its desktop and tool offerings.