Mergent Readies Fixed Income Data for API

Charlotte, NC-based company and financial data provider Mergent is making its fixed income securities database available via its API, to provide automated, on-demand access to its US taxable and municipal bond information in response to growing demand for fixed income content, officials say.

Mergent’s fixed income securities database comprises issue detail—including the schedule of call and put dates, sinking fund schedules, and credit ratings from Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s—on corporate, corporate medium-term note, supranational, US Agency and US Treasury debt securities, as well as municipal bonds, such as general obligation and revenue, healthcare and housing bonds.

The vendor plans to release the ability to access the fixed income database through its API early in the second quarter, says Jeff West, managing director of datafeeds at Mergent. Users currently access the database through the vendor’s FTP site or via its web-based BondViewer platform. While most firms that access the database are large institutional investors, recent stock market volatility has prompted increased interest in the fixed income market from other types of investors, such as smaller firms that may not have the hardware and staff required to store and maintain the data, for whom accessing the data via Mergent’s API would be easier, West adds.

The API allows users to easily retrieve only the specific data elements they require, and does not require a database to store the information, which makes it especially suitable for populating data into internal display applications or client web portals, while reducing the amount of hardware needed, West says.

Mergent already provides API access to its databases of fundamental and financial data, corporate actions, annual reports, executive biography and compensation information and its historical database of stock, index and mutual fund pricing, using the Mergent RT intraday delivery platform to push out new data via the API as updates are processed.

The vendor launched a production version of the API last week following beta testing with more than 100 clients that began last July (IMD, July 16, 2010). Many of the beta testers were mobile application developers looking to leverage the API to build apps for smart phones, such as iPhones and Android phones, that utilize data from Mergent’s databases, West says. Several unnamed developers have already demonstrated their apps to Mergent, and now that the API is in production, West expects to see these developers begin releasing their apps in the coming weeks.