Lumesis said it's forming a strategic partnership with Bitvore Corp. to provide the market with a single platform that eases access to up-to-date data on material changes in municipal bond issuers and obligors.
"Bitvore for munis brings the market obligor and CUSIP-specific news for portfolio monitoring and on-demand information," Gregg L. Bienstock, chief executive officer and co-founder of Stamford, Conn.-based Lumesis said in a press release Thursday. "The market and our clients will benefit from the simplicity of accessing big picture and local information from a single source. The breadth, depth and accuracy of Bitvore for Munis is an outstanding complement to our DIVER platform."
Bitvore for munis provides obligor intelligence by monitoring over 13,000 sources of news across the US to alert customers of material situations directly related to their portfolio. A subscription to Bitvore for munis is available immediately through Lumesis Diver products and via the Lumesis sales team.
The new service is available now and features two types of offerings. One is a portfolio monitoring system with CUSIP daily updates with any news affecting those CUSIP's while the other one offers a look-up service.
"We feel as though the portfolio monitoring will be extremely useful to people on the buy side and the look-up feature is going to be broadly for both the buy side and sell side," Bienstock said in an interview. "Technology is greatly underserved in the muni space and there is great demand for the most up-to-date information. Although the rating agencies do a great job, they don't provide daily or even weekly updates."
Jeff Curie, chief executive officer of Irvine, Calif.-based Bitvore said in an interview that the service addresses a "universal problem" for buy- and sell-side customers face as they try to keep abreast of changes that may affect their holdings.
"In the time it takes to enjoy a morning cup of coffee, our customers use Bitvore to review the material changes that happened to all the obligors in their portfolio," he said. "For surveillance, research or generating trade ideas, having fast access to relevant news on obligors enables analysts and portfolio managers to make better decisions."
