Standard & Poor's, the rating agency and index provider, is in advanced negotiations to strike a deal with the iBoxx family of credit default swap indexes. The deal would put the agency in direct competition with Dow Jones, the index provider that recently took over the management of iBoxx's rival, Trac-x.

The negotiations between S&P and iBoxx come as the deadline for a proposed merger between the two index families draws close. Products linked to both iBoxx and Trac-x roll at the end of March, which would prove an ideal time for clients to roll over their positions into a merged index.