Dow Jones Indexes, the power behind the Trac-x family of credit default swaps, is to end exploratory merger talks with its rival iBoxx within the next few weeks, unless the investment banks behind the competing consortia begin to reach an agreement.

Trac-x was established by JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, while iBoxx's main backers are Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro and Citigroup. Talks between the groups have been ongoing for several weeks but have fallen down over the proposed name for the new index - Dow Jones CDX, and over the involvement of Mark-It partners, a third party credit derivative data provider.