The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) today opened a probe into the anticipated joint venture between IHS Markit Ltd’s MarkitSERV business and CME Global Inc.’s optimization business.

The CMA will examine whether the transaction meets the requirements of section 96(2) of the Act.

The initial period defined in section 34ZA(3) of the Act in relation to the Transaction will therefore commence on the first working day after the date of this notice, ie on 7 June 2021. The deadline for the CMA to announce its decision whether to refer the Merger for a Phase 2 investigation is therefore 30 July 2021.

In January 2021, international derivatives marketplace CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) and IHS Markit (NYSE:INFO), a global provider of critical information, analytics and solutions, announced that they have agreed to combine their post-trade services into a new joint venture.

The new company will include trade processing and risk mitigation operations. It will incorporate CME Group’s optimization businesses –Traiana, TriOptima, and Reset – and IHS Markit’s MarkitSERV.

The combination of these complementary offerings will provide clients with enhanced platforms and services for global OTC markets across interest rate, FX, equity and credit asset classes. Market participants will benefit from a more efficient front-to-back workflow with enhanced connectivity and improved trading certainty.

As a result, OTC market participants will be able to improve risk management and streamline post-trade operations.