Big two lock horns

The race to take market share in the fast-growing area of credit default swap indices is gathering pace.

At the beginning of last month, European player iBoxx unveiled plans for iBoxx Diversified, using 100 equally referenced entities from 31 Moody’s industry sectors. This will bring up to three the number of iBoxx credit-linked note indices it offers as it will join the existing iBoxx 100 and Corporate Notes, launched in February.

It also announced four new market makers – SG, Citigroup, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Barclays Capital – to join founders ABN Amro and Deutsche Bank.