Data: the sell-side’s greatest asset

Whether you call it collateral damage or the law of unforeseen circumstances, you might be forgiven for wondering what the bond markets have done to deserve such unfavourable regulatory treatment in recent years. True, credit default swaps helped to mask and spread the risks being taken in the US sub-prime market, but those particular “financial weapons of mass destruction” (copyright: W Buffett) were several steps removed from the slightly staid business of issuing and investing in corporate and government debt. And since the financial crisis, the bond markets have suffered no flash crash, no rigging scandal, no insider dealing scam of note.