Ballintrae Updates Policy Repository, Oslo Bors Validates Policy Interpretation

UK-based technology and market data consultancy Ballintrae has added new search capabilities to its Ballintrae Exchange Rules and Regulation Database (BERRD) that allows data administrators who use the database to keep track of exchanges’ data usage policies.

The database contains information on prices of exchange data products and services, details of 174 exchanges’ data usage and licensing policies, and independent summaries of exchange policies in plain English, to help users interpret policies and avoid misunderstandings around market data usage.

Clients can now search the database using Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg codes, and by keywords such as geographical regions, to generate lists of all exchanges in a region.  In the last week, Ballintrae has also added a matrix reporting feature that allows users to view and generate reports on topics rather than exchanges, “So you can look at what you want across as many as exchanges as you want,” says Ballintrae chief executive Ian Pearson.

These updates follow the addition of a “private area” last September to allow users to upload commercially-sensitive contracts and documents—such as backup copies of exchange and vendor contracts—as well as a client’s own additions to the exchange data already available in the database, such as summaries, comments and other details, which has seen good uptake from banks, asset managers, large investment houses and fund managers, Pearson says. “It means that all the information is there in one repository,” either on the customer’s servers or hosted on Ballintrae’s servers, he says.

For compliance reasons, clients cannot edit Ballintrae’s proprietary content, but can upload their own additions to the private section of BERRD, which can be viewed by permissioned individuals across the globe via the database’s web access.

Oslo OKs Interpretation
In other news, Norwegian exchange Oslo Bors is the latest trading venue to verify the information on—and interpretation of—its data policy in the database. Officials at the exchange—which validated Ballintrae’s summary at the end of December—say in a statement that it is “supportive” of Ballintrae’s interpretations of its market data pricing policies in the database.

Pearson says Ballintrae intends to validate the information and policy interpretations with all 174 exchanges in BERRD because the consultancy indemnifies clients against errors in the database. “We assume the damages if a company is found to be reporting incorrectly because of an inaccuracy in our database,” he says.