Refreshingly expensive. Really?

In these modern times the old saying you get what you pay for is starting to have a hollow ring. The mighty John Lewis, that enduring stalwart of quality and style has just reported an alarming 99% drop in profits. House of Fraser imploded and Tesco’s has had to launch a new budget brand called Jack as a direct response to Lidl and Aldi’s growing dominance of the grocery market. Continual price reductions and a more demanding customer means it really is carnage on the high street. Add into the mix, Sky TV, Virgin Media, Netflix and Amazon Prime all vying for total control of your TV remote by offering a mouthwatering array of competitively priced entertainment packages, today’s consumer has never been so empowered and is spoilt for choice.

So within the financial markets it is very interesting to see one of the most dominant market data vendors in the business announcing a price hike. Particularly at a time when the financial services industry as a whole is calling for cost reductions and more of a self-service approach to how, when and where they acquire the data they need. Given we are already seeing a shift towards more innovative competitively priced data vendors and alternative venues, bucking the trend by asking your customers to pay more rather than less for their market data is a very courageous move. Just like the consumer market, the financial services arena is changing beyond recognition so one has to wonder what the reaction to this price increase will be. Who knows, but one thing is for sure it will be fascinating to see how this all plays out.