S&P Capital IQ has launched a new intra-day municipal bond pricing service designed to assist regulatory and industry efforts aimed at bringing about greater transparency to the market.  

Provided by Standard & Poor's Securities Evaluations Inc., a business unit of S&P Capital IQ specialising in multi asset class mark to market solutions, the new service will enable users to track pricing on over three million bonds throughout the trading day.

This new service has been designed to support portfolio managers, advisors and back offices looking to develop solutions that address recent Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) rules requiring institutional money market funds to calculate floating Net Asset Values. Under the existing model for end of day 4:00PM evaluations, floating NAV funds may no longer have the ability to offer same day settlement. The Commission's new rule encourages investment companies to generate multiple NAVs throughout the day, which aims to provide shareholders with intraday liquidity at prevailing market prices.

"The intra-day pricing of money market funds seeks to better facilitate same day settlement of money market transactions," says Greg Carlin, Vice President, S&P Capital IQ. "In addition, we believe that the availability of intra-day pricing across all asset classes will improve pre-trade price transparency, best execution, compliance oversight, and trade processing. As important, because many day-to-day events have proven to have material impacts on the fixed income markets in recent times, we are finding that investors are seeking an intra-day 'compass' to be assured that their assumptions are intact."