Bear Stearns Jumps on the RIXML Bandwagon

In an effort to improve the value of its research for clients and promote the adoption of Research Information Exchange Mark-up Language, Bear Stearns has entered into an agreement with researchsummary.com. Under the agreement, Bear Stearns will provide RIXML-enabled research via the researchsummary.com Web site for clients to categorize, aggregate, compare, search and sort investment research more efficiently.

"Our clients will now have the ability to search through filtered information and navigate the research better," says Janet Li, a managing director in equity research at Bear Stearns. "This will also help them to reduce the information overload." Bear Stearns currently provides research to clients in read-only PDF file format, but will now distribute the RIXML-enabled research as well.

Li says that research in read-only format is fairly limited because it cannot be manipulated or searched according to client needs. "With RIXML, clients have the ability to filter information, reduce the information overload, effectively search through multiple documents to gather required information, and specify the type of research they want to receive," she adds.

Bear Stearns will be implementing researchsummary.com's NavigateDepth software to tag its entire research production flow. The software will be installed at Bear Stearns for the RIXML tagging and Bear Stearns will then provide an FTP feed of PDF files and RIXML-enabled documents back to researchsummary.com. The research will then be available to clients through the researchsummary.com Web site.

"We have provided them with a pre-defined list of our clients," says Li. "So that when a client of researchsummary logs onto the site, if they are on Bear Stearn's pre-defined client list they will automatically be able to view the research."

Clients can then search the RIXML documents for specific information on the researchsummary site, but if they choose to view the PDF file documents, the clients will be linked directly back to the Bear Stearns research library. "Once they're in the Bear Stearns library, the clients also have access to everything we provide such as financial models, research reports and company landing pages," says Li. "But we provide both the read-only PDF documents and the RIXML documents so clients can view the entire document if they'd like or they can search and filter now," says Li.

Bear Stearns and researchsummary.com are still engaged in technical conversations and have not determined when the RIXML-enabled research will be made available to clients. Other firms that make their research available through the researchsummary.com portal include ABN Amro, ING Barings, HSBC, Credit Lyonnais, WestLB Panmure and MTS research.

Bear Stearns also provides research to other third-party vendors, but so far this has been in read-only format. "This is another platform that we feel will increase the value of research by making it more manageable for our clients," says Li.