It will include bond evaluations from the Pricing and Reference Data business of Interactive Data Corporation (NYSE: IDC), a leading provider of financial market data, analytics and related services, as an additional source to contribute to valuations offered to its customers.

This announcement comes at a time of increasing demand for valuation services, with regulators and institutional investors calling for greater transparency and independence in the valuation of complex securities.

Launched in February 2008, Prime Source is an independent, comprehensive valuation service, offered on a web-based platform designed to meet professional market participants' needs for valuation of large, global portfolios covering a wide range of asset classes and financial instruments, from plain vanilla to the most complex structured products and illiquid securities.

Prime Source allows users to access prices and evaluations from different sources, including markets, dealer contributions and valuation models. Offering both automated and tailor-made valuation services, Prime Source is designed to provide transparency and help users to comply with relevant regulations and accounting standards when carrying out their daily valuations.

Interactive Data is a leading independent provider of daily evaluations for fixed income securities. With over 30 years of experience, Interactive Data offers daily evaluations for approximately 2.5 million fixed income and international equity issues. Thousands of financial institutions worldwide, ranging from central banks to large investment banks, subscribe to Interactive Data's bond evaluations. The evaluations include corporates, high yields, governments and agencies, securitised debt issues, ABS, CMBS and CMOs, US municipal securities, hybrid securities and money market securities.

Marie-Héléne Crétu, CEO of Prime Source, said: "The availability of Interactive Data's bond evaluations ions will enhance the combination of valuation services available via Prime Source. Through Prime Source, users can obtain the information they need to facilitate their valuation process in one single, independent source, allowing them to make an educated choice on pricing and valuation for complex and diverse instruments within their portfolio."

Brendan Beith, Sales Director, Interactive Data (Europe), added: "Independent bond evaluations have become even more important in these volatile financial markets and against the background of increased regulation. Institutions need to have a firm grasp on the value of their holdings - especially thinly traded fixed income securities. We place great emphasis on making our services available through a broad range of third parties, and are delighted that Prime Source will be offering our breadth of bond evaluations."