Notice of Intent to Sole Source

In accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2, Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions, this is a Notice of Intent that The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) intends to make a sole source, Firm-Fixed Price award for a one-year base period and four one-year option periods (for a total of 5 years if all options are exercised) to Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Global Market Intelligence, LLC for their Capital IQ market intelligence web-based platform using FAR Part 12 and 13 procedures.

Under the proposed contract, S&P Global Market Intelligence, LLC will provide a web-based market intelligence platform designed to provide research, data, and analysis on private and public companies to help finance professionals perform market analysis. The Contractor shall provide a market intelligence platform subscription for 43 named users of the service. The main categories of information provided by Capital IQ are:

a) Real-time market data (i.e., stock prices);

b) Financial information (financial statements);

c) Valuation (financial modeling);

d) Research estimates (from sell-side equity research);

e) Qualitative data (transcripts and other items);

f) Global market data (international markets);

g) News and events (press releases, analyst calls, etc.);

h) Fixed income information (prices, yields, etc.);

i) Credit ratings and research ratings;

j) Security pricing and valuation. Capital IQ provides comprehensive company information and financial modeling that CFRD uses to help determine whether or not to terminate a pension plan, as well as a “Key Developments” feature which tags by relevance (e.g., risk factor, positive/negative impact) and it is linked to original filings or news sources.

Other databases may provide raw new feeds or press release dumps, but CapIQ uniquely synthesizes and organizes these into actionable, standardized intelligence, which saves users significant research time. Capital IQ is the only provider that offers this service. It is critical to the CFRD’s mission that it has at least two sources of credit ratings and analysis to justify the Department’s casework, and access to the same financial information used by commercial lenders.

PBGC does not want to rely exclusively on one resource as the Agency has historically relied on bond ratings. Relying on one source would not provide a broad enough picture of the possible risks of a plan sponsor to a pension program. This is not a Request for Competitive Quotation.

Rather, this is a notice of intent to make a sole source award to S&P Global Market Intelligence, LLC. However, Interested parties may submit a capability statement (no later than, August 1, 2025, 12:00 PM (Eastern Time)) by email to the Contracting Officer (CO) Dennis Johnson at johnson.dennis@pbgc.gov, and the Contract Specialist (CS) Joseph Brummell at brummell.joseph@pbgc.gov. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement.

A determination to compete the proposed procurement based upon responses to this notice is solely at the discretion of the Government. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS NOTICE.