AllianceBernstein (AB) and Capital Group have both selected Bloomberg's evaluated pricing service (BVAL) to benchmark and corroborate end-of-day values for US fixed income portfolio investments.
AB, which has US$498 billion in assets under management (AUM), is licencing BVAL data to calculate the net asset value (NAV) of its corporate, government and municipal bond investments. Capital Group, which has US$1.4 trillion AUM, is using BVAL for coverage of municipal bonds. Bloomberg provides coverage of US fixed income securities, access to in-house evaluator teams and transparency into BVAL pricing models through Bloomberg Terminal screens.
BVAL's methodology draws on real-time access to market observations from contributed sources that produces valuations for over 2.5 million fixed income securities and over-the-counter derivatives.
Market data is used to first corroborate market levels on actively-traded bonds and then derive a comparable relative value price for securities that are less liquid. The prices are derived algorithmically using the most recent market data in order to allow BVAL prices to track current market conditions. Bloomberg reports the system is subject to rigid quality tests.
“Capital Group maintains a disciplined approach to managing our funds that is based on rigorous research and high-conviction investment strategies,” said Noelle Aiello, VP in Global Securities Operations at Capital Group. “It is imperative that we have access to best-in-class solutions for valuing municipal bonds and BVAL offers the level of quality and service that we require.”
BVAL is the primary pricing source for the Bloomberg Barclays bond indices.
