Markit has announced that it will launch a 'comprehensive' loan identification system by the end of the year, which will provide syndicated loan market participants with individual loan identifiers and a numbering system. The initiative hopes to improve current procedures with a universal set of identifiers aimed at ensuring that transmitted information is linked to the correct underlying loan and delivered to the accurate participant.

Markit says that having financial information currently transmitted by fax, email or phone often results in operational inefficiency and error. The primary set of identifiers will be made available by the end of this year.