Notification of the SECs Intent to Award a Single Source Purchase Order to Markit

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intends to award a sole source contract for Markit Reference Data to Markit. The base period of performance will be May 20, 2016 to March 19, 2017. The contract will have a base period with three option periods and will result in a firm fixed price purchase order. The SEC requires a service that will deliver credit default swap (CDS) reference data, including information on entities, obligations, corporate actions and credit events. The data will be delivered through the Wharton WRDS platform and will include the following key features: (1) unique identification codes for CDS reference entities, (2) unique identification codes for pairs of CDS reference entities and reference obligations, (3) information on the legal relationship between a reference entity and a reference obligation, (4) verified corporate events (e.g., corporate actions, CDS succession events, credit events) that potentially affect the pricing and trading of CDSs, (5) unique identification codes for CDS indexes, and (6) verified information on CDS indexes and the constituents of CDS indexes including updated weighting and index factors upon a credit event.

Due to exclusive licensing agreements the Government intends to solicit only one source using simplified acquisition procedures in accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b). Interested organizations may submit their capability statements and qualifications for the provision of this requirement. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct future competitive procurements. This notice of intent is not a solicitation. No solicitation or additional information will be made available with regard to this sole source notice.