Visible Alpha, a US data and analytics firm backed by Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, has agreed a deal to buy a London-based regulatory technology startup as it competes for business ahead of new European Union trading rules.

The acquisition of Alpha Exchange, which runs a cloud-based system that enables banks and other research providers to sell their reports and lets asset managers track what research they use, comes ahead of the implementation in January of the updated Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.