Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) called it a “strategic investment” that comes with a partnership: ICE offers market data to help investors, which BondLink will give to its customer agencies to aid them in preparing bonds. The data includes interest rate yield curves, changes in bond evaluations and secondary market trading activity.
“With issuers spread out across the U.S., the municipal bond market remains very fragmented, and is in need of transparency,” said Lynn Martin, ICE’s president of fixed income and data services, in a press release. “Better access to information, data and analytics are essential. Our investment in BondLink and the distribution of ICE data directly to the issuer community will provide municipalities with new tools to help efficiently manage the full lifecycle of debt issuance.”
This kind of partnership is nothing new for BondLink, which is about five years old. Its $10 million Series A round in 2018 was led by Franklin Templeton Investments, and in 2019 it partnered with Ipreo by IHS Markit and Fidelity Investments to provide those companies with credit information about bond issuers.
Aside from its data work, BondLink helps build investor relations websites for government agencies to issue bonds through, as well as manage documentation and communicate with investors. It’s worked with issuers in more than 30 states.
