These standard contracts will enable investors to gain or hedge exposure to the corporate bond markets easily and efficiently by offering a fungible and transparent trading solution to market participants.

The contracts will initially be available for the following indices: Markit iBoxx EUR Corporates, Markit iBoxx USD Domestic Corporates, Markit iBoxx GBP Corporates, Markit iBoxx EUR Liquid HY and Markit iBoxx USD Liquid HY.

Armins Rusis, Managing Director and Global Head of Data, Indices and Research at Markit, said: "We are very excited by this latest development. The Markit iBoxx indices are among the world's leading cash bond indices for product structuring and risk management. In recent years, we have expanded their coverage across the fixed income asset class to enhance transparency. Today, by supporting a standardised format, we are helping to create investor access to liquid derivative products to gain or hedge exposure to the asset class. This is good news for liquidity in the global bond markets."

Markit iBoxx indices are market-leading, independent fixed income benchmark indices. Their pricing is drawn from multiple dealer price contributions. They are a valuable tool for structured products and provide data for fixed income research, asset allocation and performance evaluation in the global fixed income markets.