Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and SmartStream Technologies to form a joint venture to create a new Reference Data Utility. The SmartStream Reference Data Utility, informally known as Securities Product Reference Data (SPReD), will provide services for instrument reference data normalization and validation across all asset classes. The founding banks will also become clients of the utility. Financial terms were not disclosed. “The new Reference Data Utility is at the forefront of what really is an evolution in the industry with the achievement of processing mutualization, the reduction in operational risk and an increase in service quality within the reference data management domain. Our three bank members have embraced the utility model to ensure that the duplication of effort is minimized when addressing common market issues such as inconsistent data in regulatory reporting, costly trade breaks, and risk management," Philippe Chambadal, SmartStream CEO.