LUXEMBOURG – The Zurich based International Securities Market Association (ISMA) is launching a new market data service aimed at intermediaries, institutions, financial advisers and private investors.
The service will provide daily bid and offer quotes for more than 8,000 international issues, says the association.

ISMA covers security information provided by dealers who report prices and also provide underlying and historical data, covering straights, floating rate notes, convertibles and medium term notes.

A key component of the new service, says ISMA, is the possibility to select and define the data shown on the web site.
The International Securities Services Association, the organisation of global securities administrators, will also feature five-year graphical representations including prices, yields, interest rates, exchange rates and indices.

According to ISMA, the service will be expanded later to provide searchable access to an archive of international securities prospectuses.

The initiative follows a survey of the association’s customer base for printed products, which showed that the flexibility and ease of access of the internet signalled a demand for a web based data service.