Could this be the mythical Markit-killer?

Bloomberg's global identifiers for all asset classes are now available for free. A move that will be applauded by most standards and identifier evangelists.

However, as most veterans of the standards rows know - politics plays a far greater role and can overshadow any data management benefits.

Bloomberg may be aiming this at the Cusip Service Bureau, which has had its own share of problems reconciling its use of ISO 6166 within the Cusip database, which is available via a license fee. However, the Cusip Service Bureau acts as the National Numbering Association (NNA) for North America, and the Cusip serves as the National Securities Identification Number for products issued from both the United States and Canada.

Anyone see that changing any time soon?

However, I'm interested in another identifier database. For a few years there have been rumours of a vendor establishing a 'Markit-killer', and those rumours have often pointed towards Bloomberg.

Markit, of course runs the Reference Entity Database for credit instruments as a utility. But its guardianship of RED has offered Markit a favourable position in the market, and now with its purchase of Boat, the little data vendor that could is looking to be the best contender for number 3 market data vendor behind Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg.

Who do you think Bloomberg has set its competitive sites on now?