ICE to take over Black Knight as FTC secures settlement

Intercontinental Exchange is moving forward with its purchase of data vendor Black Knight after the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accepted a binding settlement.

There were originally concerns from the FTC that the $11.7bn deal between the two mortgage technology companies would cause issues such as driving up costs, reducing innovation and limiting choice for lenders.

“This deal as originally structured would have reduced competition in key areas of the mortgage origination process, raising costs for lenders and homebuyers,” FTC bureau of competition director Henry Liu said.

“To address these concerns, the Commission's order provides structural relief and a variety of tools to preserve competition in these critical markets,” he continued.

Black Knight, a constituent of the AltFi Fintech Index, and ICE will be required to seek approval from the FTC before buying back any divested assets or an interest in a loan origination system business in the next 10 years.

Black Knight is divesting its loan origination system Empower and its product and pricing engine Optimal Blue, which will be taken over by a subsidiary of Constellation Software.

The consent agreement will now go through a public comment period.