BRAIS's benchmark indices span global markets covering multiple asset classes, most notably the Barclays Family of Aggregate Bond Indices.

"As financial markets continue to evolve, our clients need and expect the index business to evolve too," said Michael R. Bloomberg. "Combining the market-leading Barclays indices and their superb team with our data management, analytics and distribution will provide more independence, liquidity and transparency to the marketplace, improve industry innovation and further meet the diverse needs of our global client base."

The BRAIS acquisition will extend the complementary investments that Bloomberg has made in the index business to date and drive further value to Bloomberg clients, as these indices are integrated into Bloomberg's analytic dashboards, portfolio analytics, order management systems, and execution management systems. Bloomberg currently participates in the index business through the Bloomberg Commodity Index, also known as BCOM (formerly the UBS-Dow Jones Commodities Index), and the Bloomberg AusBond Indices (formerly the UBS Australia Bond Index family).

Bloomberg has also increased its investments in PORT, the company's multi-asset portfolio risk and analytics tool that has seen significant growth over the past five years. The Company intends to accelerate its investments in this area by acquiring the intellectual property in POINT, Barclays' portfolio analytics solution, and incorporating BRAIS IP into PORT. Barclays has agreed to continue to operate POINT for 18 months post completion in order to help clients transition to PORT.

"At a time when market structure change is causing increased demand for innovative solutions in fixed income, the industry and our mutual clients will benefit greatly from the combination of these assets," said J.P. Zammitt, Global Head of Financial Products. "BRAIS's talented team will bolster our investments and help us continue to innovate around better creation, sharing, publishing and benchmarking tools, as well as portfolio and risk analytics."

Bloomberg and Barclays will maintain a co-branding arrangement on the benchmark indices for an initial term of five years.

The transaction is expected to be completed by mid-2016.