In the latest leg of its deal-making marathon, Ion Group has acquired Clarus Financial Technology, a derivatives analytics and data provider.

The move expands Ion’s existing post-trade service for listed derivatives into the over-the-counter derivatives market, where it will confront established vendors, such as Calypso, Cassini Systems, CloudMargin and OpenGamma.

Francesco Margini, Ion’s head of product management for cleared derivatives, says the point of the deal was not to buy market share, but to close “a gap [in] real-time evaluation of cleared OTC and OTC products.”

Ion plans to incorporate Clarus’s margin calculation, risk management and monitoring software into the firm’s XTP platform for listed products—a step that could help Ion capitalize on next year’s scheduled expansion of the margining regime for non-cleared OTC derivatives.

The rules are designed to extend clearing-style safeguards to the non-cleared market, by requiring derivatives users to exchange initial margin—in theory offsetting default risk on both sides of the trade. Critics have argued the requirements impose a heavy operational burden on hundreds of firms that present no systemic risk.

Under the fifth phase of the regime, implemented earlier this month, firms with non-cleared derivatives exceeding €50 billion ($59 billion) in notional value in any given month will need to start calculating and exchanging margin. The threshold is currently scheduled to fall to €8 billion in September 2022.

Amir Khwaja, founder and chief executive of the nine-year old Clarus, sees an opportunity here, thanks to Ion’s large client base of corporates and treasuries.

Many of these clients use derivatives, Khwaja notes, but it’s a small part of their business, so they will be looking for a hassle-free solution to the new margining requirements they face: “They can go to their incumbent treasury vendor, which may be an Ion product, and so we can do that for them. Or they can go to their outsourced derivatives collateral agent. I think we will see both happening,” says Khwaja.

Ion has expanded dramatically in recent years, building a portfolio of software that spans multiple asset classes and products. After consolidating its position in fixed income trading, the company has snapped up commodities, equities and foreign exchange vendors, as well as data firms Acuris and Dealogic.

Its growth has not been without challenge. Ion found its ambitions crimped last year when the UK competition regulator only approved its acquisition of Broadway Technology on the proviso that Ion sold the firm’s fixed income business.

Separately, a group of European and UK banks had considered building a DIY fixed income trading software alternative to Ion. The vendor has generated friction with some customers over the costs of its software and the scope of its contracts, which can be hard to escape or scale back.

Khwaja says the whole Clarus team is staying following its acquisition, and adds that in advance of sealing the deal Clarus conducted 12 calls with customers “and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.”

In addition to its margin analytics, Clarus also has over 50 customers for its OTC derivatives trading data, collected from the repositories that were created after the 2008 financial crisis. Khwaja says the deal means the combined firm will branch out to collect more futures data in addition to OTC derivatives data, which will benefit banks that offer clearing in both swaps and futures.