ICE has completed its acquisition of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s (BAML) fixed income index platform, which will become a part of the ICE Data Services business.
The platform is the second most used fixed income indices by assets under management (AUM) globally. Upon closing, the AUM benchmarked against the combined fixed income businesses of ICE now stands at nearly $1 trillion.
ICE will rename the indices ‘ICE BofAML Indices’ and will also provide proprietary indices and third-party index and ETF calculation tools.
Lynn Martin, president and chief operating officer of ICE Data Services, explained with the addition of BAML’s index platform, the firm is able to offer a portfolio that includes more than 5,000 global fixed income and commodity indices.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed and ICE stated the financial impact of the transaction will be immaterial in 2017.
ICE’s acquisition is the second major deal from an exchange operator looking to expand its index capabilities. Earlier this year the London Stock Exchange Group acquired Citigroup’s fixed income index business for $685 million.
Exchanges are looking to expand into more profitable alternative business lines, such as the index and market data business, with revenues from traditional lines steadily declining.