Eight major derivatives dealers have taken a stake Mark-it Partners, the independent credit and credit derivatives data provider, in a move that will significantly boost the fast-growing firm.

In total 13 key banks now form the consortium that owns Mark-It, including most of the leading players in the credit derivatives market. Mark-it was founded by TD Securities in early 2003 when a group of 12 banks were offered 12-month equity options in the firm. These expired at the end of last year, but three of the 13 banks, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, had already thrown their weight behind Mark-it, when they took a stake in the firm in exchange for their combined reference entity database, the so-called Red service.