Nasdaq Inc. (NDAQ) Q3 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

Nasdaq Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) Q3 2020 earnings call dated Oct. 21, 2020

Corporate Participants:

Ed Ditmire — Vice President of Investor Relations

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Michael Ptasznik — Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Chief Financial Officer

Analysts:

Richard Repetto — Piper Sandler — Analyst

Daniel Fannon — Jefferies & Company — Analyst

Jeremy Campbell — Barclays Capital — Analyst

Alex Kramm — UBS — Analyst

Brian Bedell — Deutsche Bank — Analyst

Michael Carrier — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

Owen Lau — Oppenheimer & Co. — Analyst

Alexander Blostein — Goldman Sachs — Analyst

Christopher Harris — Wells Fargo Securities — Analyst

Kyle Voigt — Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. — Analyst

Kenneth Hill — Loop Capital Markets — Analyst

Presentation:

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Nasdaq Third Quarter 2020 Results. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Ed Ditmire, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Ed Ditmire — Vice President of Investor Relations

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Nasdaq’s third quarter 2020 financial results. On the line are Adena Friedman, our CEO; Michael Ptasznik, our CFO; John Zecca, our Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer; and other members of the management team. After prepared remarks, we’ll open up to Q&A.

The press release and presentation are on our website. We intend to use the website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and complying with disclosure obligations under SEC Regulation FD.

I would like to remind you that certain statements in this presentation and during Q&A may relate to future events and expectations and, as such, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from these projections. Information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements is contained in our press release and periodic reports filed with the SEC. Our forward-looking statements speak only as of today, October 21, 2020, and Nasdaq assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Lastly, a quick programing mention, we are excited to be hosting our Investor Day in November 10. Our senior leadership team will give presentations about our operations, opportunities and strategy, and will be available for your questions. I know many of you on the line today are planning to participate. If you have not registered, please do so today at our IR website.

I will now turn the call over to Adena.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Ed, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I’m pleased to report Nasdaq’s financial results for the third quarter of 2020. With our strategic ambitions as our guide, we have been consistently focused on delivering results for our clients, while creating sustainable value for our stakeholders. Our global workforce has demonstrated their nimbleness and ability to remain highly productive and available to our clients throughout the period. That focus is reflected in today’s strong results, where we are seeing significant contributions from across our franchise. My remarks today will focus on business unit highlights and strategic initiatives from the third quarter. I will then touch on today’s announcement about Michael’s decision to retire, and then Michael will cover the financials.

Nasdaq delivered another quarter of strong performance, driven by great efforts by our team, coupled with favorable market conditions. Here are some of the highlights. We welcomed 105 IPOs to Nasdaq during the period, which represents the highest number of IPOs for a quarter on a US exchange in the past decade. Conviction by investors to increase exposure to Nasdaq’s focus of thematic indexes, coupled with robust market performance, continues to support our expanding Index business. As a result, we saw the AUM in our Index products achieve another quarter of record highs alongside high-trading activity in Nasdaq licensed index derivatives.

Our market infrastructure performed exceptionally well during the peaks of volatility we observed earlier this year, particularly in March and April. We continue to experience strong volumes across our equity options businesses in the third quarter, and we’ve continued to invest to enable us to have the capacity for future volatility as markets react to continually changing dynamics in the US and globally.

Our Data & Analytics business within Information Services, as well as our Market Technology business continued to demonstrate their resilience with healthy growth in annualized recurring revenue, or ARR, Market Tech and targeted sales and new capabilities and products across our product suite. We are pleased to announce the launch of several new products during the period, including the cloud-deployed Nasdaq Automated Investigator for anti-money laundering, or AML, to SaaS solution for investigating financial crime for retail and commercial banks and other financial institutions.

And in our Licensed Index Futures business, we announced together with CME Group two innovative index products, a new futures contract on the Nasdaq-100 Volatility Index known as VOLQ, and the first-ever Water Index Futures based on the Nasdaq Veles California Water Index. Early in October, we also announced an expansion of our partnership with Invesco for our Nasdaq-100 product suite, including a new Nasdaq NextGen 100 Index ETF.

Our results in the third quarter highlight the strength of Nasdaq’s diversified product offerings and business model, while operating in a unique capital markets environment in 2020. Our ability to execute against the significant demand and logistical challenges of COVID-19 enabled us to continue on our strategic journey and bring these new and innovative technology and index solutions to our clients.

Now, I will turn to our strong results for the third quarter of 2020. Nasdaq delivered net revenues of $715 million, an increase of $83 million, or 13% from the prior-year period, driven almost entirely by an organic growth. Net revenues in our Market Services business grew 15%, while revenues on our non-trading segments rose 12% from the prior-year period.

Operating leverage was particularly strong with non-GAAP operating margin expanding nearly 200 basis points to 52% and contributing to the non-GAAP EPS growth of 20%.

Turning now to the specific highlights from the third quarter, starting with our foundational marketplace businesses. Our Market Services segment saw net revenues of $259 million, a 15% increase from the prior-year period, led by 35% increase in cash equity net revenues, as well as strong growth in both the Equity Derivatives and Trade Management Services businesses. While, of course, industry volumes were a main contributor to this performance, I do want to bring attention to the strong competitive positioning that Market Services has established and which continued in the third quarter. In particular, we’ve enjoyed relatively stable market share in US equities, an area where we featured the single largest liquidity pool with the Nasdaq Stock Market, the largest of our three equities exchanges. Additionally, our Nordic equity franchise with a 77% share on exchange trading was up nearly 500 basis points year-over-year, and then our US options trading complex, we continue to lead the industry with a 37% share of multiply-listed options.

The elevated volumes we’ve experienced are the results of both high investor engagement in a multitude of macro and geopolitical uncertainties. While the activity levels can change quickly, we believe that the US Presidential election remains a big focus for investors, and we anticipate that our marketplaces are likely to continue to contribute at high levels as we progress through the final quarter of the year.

Our Corporate Services segment delivered revenues of $132 million, a 6% increase, boosted by new listing activity and continued demand for our Governance and Investor Relations Intelligence solution.

In our listings business — in our Listing Services business, Nasdaq led US exchanges for IPOs during the period welcoming a 105 IPOs for 79% win rate for operating company listings, and an overall win rate of 65% when including SPAC. We are proud to welcome GoodRx, Li Auto, Jamf Holding Company and nCino, as just a few of the highlight listings from the quarter.

Our quarterly win rate of SPAC is also been rising from 30% in the second quarter to 51% in the third quarter. In addition, we were honored to welcome six companies who have switched their listings from the New York Stock Exchange to Nasdaq during the period with an aggregate global market capitalization of $187 billion, including AstraZeneca and Keurig Dr Pepper. This brings our cumulative exchange switch market cap to over $1.8 trillion since 2005 with over $1 trillion of that value switching in just the last five years.

When it came to their decision to switch exchanges, these issues — issuers identified strongly with the innovative spirit of Nasdaq’s listing platform with the expanding community of listed issuers, recognizing the opportunity to leverage our IR and Governance solutions to improve how they engage with critical stakeholders. And lastly, for the larger switches, to potentially increase the representation in the Nasdaq family of indexes by qualifying for the Nasdaq-100.

In the third quarter, Corporate Services revenue grew 6% with a balanced contribution from both Governance and IR solutions. We are pleased that rising secular demand for insights that help companies better understand and engage with shareholders is more than offsetting the impact of spending reductions by companies and sectors more negatively impacted by COVID-19. We believe that our successes during the quarter underscore how Nasdaq continues to be the destination exchange and partner of choice for companies worldwide with unparalleled expertise across equity markets, Investor Relations and Governance.

Now, let me turn to our Information Services and Technology businesses. In our Information Services segment, we delivered net revenues of $238 million, up $40 million, or 20% from the prior-year period. Index AUM rose to $313 billion versus $207 billion in the prior-year period, up 51%, while contract volumes in the Nasdaq Index — Nasdaq Licensed Index Futures that trade on the CME rose by more than 90%. Each of these contributed meaningfully to the index revenue rising $30 million, or 54% year-over-year.

While the Nasdaq-100 family of indexes has had market appreciation materially above the broader market averages, 30% — 37% of the increase in AUM year-over-year came from positive organic investor inflows, and we’re working with our partners to meet rising investor interest in Nasdaq’s thematic indexes in several ways. For example, as I stated earlier in my remarks, just last week Invesco introduced the QQQ Innovation Suite in partnership with Nasdaq, giving a wider population of investors access to the Nasdaq-100 Index for a variety of investment structures and providing exposures to the Nasdaq NextGen 100 Index through a new ETF. Additionally, we launched VOLQ, a new futures contract on the Nasdaq-100 Volatility Index and announced plans to launch the futures contract based on the Nasdaq Veles California Water Index.

Our Investment Data & Analytics revenues increased 13% from the prior-year period, driven both by the incorporation of Solovis and the organic growth in our leading institutional asset allocation solutions.

Market Data rose 5% with contributions from across our North American and European proprietary products, as well as the tape plan revenues. Growth during the period was driven by new sales and increased investor — retail investor usage worldwide, particularly in new geographies like Asia-Pacific and Latin America. In addition, this area of the business saw new customer expansion and new product launches, driven by the launch of the Nasdaq Cloud Data Service, a service that we believe provide significant technical cost reductions and quickens the time to market for clients seeking real-time data solutions.

Lastly, our Market Technology segment delivered $86 million in revenues and signed $84 million in new order intake. ARR in the quarter was $278 million, a 9% increase year-over-year. However, total revenue rose only nominally in the third quarter, compared to the prior year, as the growth in the more stable SaaS subscription and recurring licensing fees that comprise our ARR was offset by lower non-recurring revenues associated with new service implementations and change requests.

As we stated earlier in 2020, service implementation, change request project, new order intake levels, and funding for new market initiatives have been adversely impacted by the pandemic-related factors. We continue to expect to see in the short-term, mostly logistical growth headwinds, that underpin the risk of market technology being below the bottom of our medium-term growth objectives for the current year. We have taken actions that we hope will mitigate pressures on our non-recurring Market Technology revenues in the coming periods. For example, we’ve developed new ways of improving execution for important project phases in a completely virtual environment. And we’ve increased hiring of technology staff as part of an effort to quicken the pace of our full slate of existing implementations to their production phases. The increased technology staff to manage the large project — delivery projects has had an impact on the short-term margins. And we are managing this expense increase carefully as we continue to be focused on driving margin expansion as the business continues to grow.

Taking a step back, in the near-term impact of the pandemic, our conviction has not changed about the medium- to long-term opportunity for Market Technology. A major component of this strategy is our commitment to operating and providing best-in-class SaaS solutions across the transaction lifecycle. Our Marketplace Services Platform, which launched in June, gives clients the complete transaction lifecycle functionality on a single platform and we’ve seen positive response and growth in demand for the platform over the quarter.

In 2020 year-to-date, we have increased the count of sales to entirely new clients, the vast majority of which have chosen to implement our next-generation SaaS-enabled services. Specifically, we signed eight new market infrastructure operator clients to our SaaS offerings, and we signed 12 new trade surveillance clients so far this year. We’ve also had solid success in expanding our existing client relationships in our trade surveillance business. We look forward to updating you both in addressing the near-term challenges we are navigating, as well as our progress in ramping adoption of our next-generation products and services in the coming periods.

Now, let me take a moment to address today’s announcement that Michael will be retiring in early 2021 after a very distinguished 30-year financial services career. Michael joined Nasdaq in 2016 as CFO to lead a dynamic team responsible for Finance, Treasury, Strategy, Investor Relations, Facilities and Risk Management. His extensive operational expertise and industry reputation for strategic thinking, creative resource management, and managing through competitive and evolving landscape, made him a perfect fit for us during what has been an especially important phase in our growth as a Company.

Michael has been an invaluable member of the executive leadership team during this time at Nasdaq. He played a particularly important role in our management team strategic review of our business in 2017. After which we realigned our vision, mission, and corporate strategy to embrace our core strengths in data analytics and technology, our strategic pivot, as we refer to it. Michael has since [Phonetic] played an instrumental role in the execution of that strategic pivot. For example, he worked closely with me to establish a clear, consistent capital deployment and return framework, including an annual review of our business portfolio and effectively managed the balance sheet to improve liquidity and lowering — and lower borrowing costs.

Michael has been a wonderful partner to our business unit leaders bringing creative ideas, as well as the structured approach across business unit initiatives. He has worked extensively with our business units to evaluate and execute on organic and inorganic opportunities and he oversaw the launch and development of our Venture Investment Group. Michael has been an outstanding CFO, bringing focus, drive, creativity, and determination to his role every day. And on behalf of the entire team at Nasdaq and the Board of Directors, I want to thank you, Michael, for his leadership and dedication to our Company and to our value.

When Michael retires at the end of February next year, I’m very pleased to announce that Ann Dennison, who currently serves as Senior Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer, will become Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Ann joined Nasdaq in 2015 and since 2017 she has been leading an extensive multi-year modernization of the Company’s financial operations infrastructure. These efforts include Nasdaq’s migration to a modern financial, consolidation and reporting system, leveraging Workday Financials, the introduction of a new enterprise resource planning platform and surrounding systems, and the development of a corporate data strategy and intelligent automation program that are delivering interesting insights and powerful efficiencies.

Additionally, Ann added to her responsibilities in 2017 when she took on leadership of the Financial Planning and Analysis team, which partners with the business units and expert teams to develop and maintain our detailed forecast and budget. Ann is a dedicated leader with a deep understanding of our business and our long-term vision. She has made significant contributions to Nasdaq financial soundness in her five years with the Company, and her diligence and expertise will be important factors in our growth strategy. With her combination of experience and leadership skills, as well as her thorough knowledge of Nasdaq’s business and financial operations, Ann is the obvious and best choice to become Nasdaq’s next CFO. I’m excited for our analysts and investors to meet Ann in the coming months as Michael and Ann work together to transition the role between now and the end of February.

As I wrap up, I will summarize by saying that we are very pleased with the strong results we delivered in the third quarter and we remain focused on advancing our strategic mission. Our results highlight the strength of Nasdaq’s diversified product offering and business model, capitalizing both on opportunities presented by this year’s unique capital market backdrop, including elevated trading volumes, rising index valuations and strong IPO issuance. We believe that our ability to execute against the significant demand and the logistical challenges of COVID-19 has enabled us to continue on our journey, while prudently advancing as a technology and analytics provider.

And with that, I will turn it over to Michael to review the financial details.

Michael Ptasznik — Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Adena, for those kind remarks, and good morning, everyone. I will first provide comments on the quarter and then a few remarks about my decision to retire. My commentary on the quarter will primarily focus on our non-GAAP results and all comparisons will be to the prior-year period unless otherwise noted. Reconciliations of US GAAP to non-GAAP results can be found in our press release, as well as in a file located in the Financial section of our Investor Relations website at ir.nasdaq.com.

I will start by reviewing third quarter revenue performance as shown on Page 3 of the presentation and organic revenue growth on Pages 4 and 14. The $83 million increase in reported net revenue of $715 million is the net result of organic growth of $70 million, including 13% organic increase in Market Services, and 10% organic growth in the non-trading segments, a $4 million positive impact from acquisitions and a $9 million favorable impact from changes in foreign exchange rates.

I will now review quarterly highlights within each of our reporting segments. I will start with Information Services, which as reflected on Pages 5 and 14, saw a $40 million or 20% increase in revenue. Excluding a positive $3 million impact from the acquisition of Solovis and a $1 million positive impact from favorable changes in foreign exchange rates, organic revenue growth during the period was 18%, primarily reflecting very strong growth in our Index business and positive contributions from each of the Investment Data & Analytics and Market Data businesses. Operating margin of 65%, increased 100 basis points compared to the prior-year period.

Market Technology revenue, as shown on Pages 6 and 14, increased $2 million, or 2%, primarily reflecting a positive $3 million impact from favorable changes in foreign exchange rates. On an organic basis, revenue decreased by $1 million, or 1% as the increase in software-as-a-surveillance — service — surveillance revenues were more than offset by lower software delivery and support revenues and lower change requests and advisory revenues.

Annualized recurring revenue, or ARR, rose 9% compared to the prior-year period.

Operating margin of 10% in the period was down 8 percentage points from 18% in the prior year, putting margin into a 12-month context, which eliminates quarter-to-quarter volatility from seasonality and other factors. The trailing 12-month margin is 16% in line with the full-year 2019 level. As Adena noted, progress has been impacted by the pandemic-induced near-term growth headwinds. However, we continue to expect margin improvement as the business expands over time.

Turning to Corporate Services on Pages 7 and 14, revenues increased $8 million, or 6%. Organic revenue growth was $6 million, or 5%, reflecting an increase in US listings revenues and increases in both Governance Solutions and IR Intelligence revenues. The operating margin of 39% for the segment was up 300 basis points from the prior-year period.

Market Services net revenues on Pages 8 and 14, saw a $33 million, or 15% increase. Excluding the positive $4 million impact from favorable changes in foreign exchange rates, the organic revenue increase was $29 million, or 13%. The organic increase during the period primarily reflects increases in cash equities and equities derivatives net revenues due to higher industry trading volumes. The operating margin of 59% for the segment increased 2 percentage points year-over-year.

Now, turning to Pages 9 and 14 to review expenses. Non-GAAP operating expenses increased $29 million to $346 million. The increase reflects a $17 million, or 5% organic increase, a $7 million increase from the impact of acquisitions, and a $5 million increase from an unfavorable impact from — of changes in foreign exchange rates. The organic growth and expenses primarily reflects higher compensation expense, professional fees and infrastructure costs, partially offset by lower travel and event spending.

Turning to Slide 10, we are adjusting our 2020 non-GAAP operating expense guidance to a range of $1.36 billion to $1.37 billion, up from $1.33 billion to $1.36 billion previously. The revised range is driven by two factors. First, changes in foreign exchange rates, and particularly the weakening of the US dollar has manifested in a $10 million increase in the top end of our guidance range. Second, as we have continued to deliver especially strong organic growth in both our trading and non-trading segments, higher expenses, including accruals of performance-based compensation, make us increasingly likely to end up at the high end of our expense guidance range.

To add some full-year context, the $1.37 billion high-end of our revised expense guidance range implies a 4% organic increase in expenses, while in the first nine months of 2020, the Company delivered organic revenue growth of 12%.

Now, moving to operating profit and margins. Non-GAAP operating income increased $54 million in the third quarter of 2020 and the non-GAAP operating margin was 52%, compared to 50% in the prior-year period.

Net interest expense was $24 million in the third quarter of 2020, a decrease of $2 million versus the prior year.

The non-GAAP effective tax rate was 26% for the third quarter of 2020. For the full-year 2020, we continue to expect the non-GAAP tax rate to be between 26% and 27%.

Non-GAAP net income attributable to Nasdaq for the third quarter of 2020 was $256 million, or $1.53 per diluted share, compared to $212 million, or $1.27 per diluted share in the prior-year period.

Turning to Slide 11, debt increased by $89 million versus June 30, primarily due to an increase in the Eurobonds book value caused by a stronger euro. Our total debt-to-EBITDA ratio ended the period at 2.4 times, unchanged from 2.4 times at the end of Q2.

During the third quarter of 2020, the Company paid a dividend in the aggregate of $81 million and repurchased common stock in the amount of $34 million. The Company has repurchased $186 million year-to-date through September 30, largely completing our objective to use share repurchases to offset dilution of equity compensation and other sources of gross issuances.

Now, before I turn it back for the Q&A session, a few comments about my decision to retire. While it’s the decision I have contemplated for a while now, it’s certainly comes with mixed emotions. It has been such an honor and a privilege to work for Adena, the Board and this incredible Company, and I am extremely excited about the vision and strategy and the great opportunities that we have ahead of us to continue to grow and expand as a technology Company serving the capital markets and beyond. Most importantly, I am fortunate to work with colleagues who are enormously intelligent, innovative-driven and are just good people, consistently exemplified Nasdaq’s values of integrity and teamwork.

However, I’ve been in the exchange industry now for a long time. Going back to the ’90s when exchanges were mutual, broker owned not for profits. And while I can’t say for certain, I do believe I hold a record for the most consecutive quarterly conference calls as CFO of an exchange group with this call being my 72nd in a row. And that’s why the decision was so difficult. For those of you who like me are Canadian, I’m sure you’ll recall the ubiquitous early retirement-inducing Freedom 55 commercials, and will undoubtedly understand the indelible target that left on my psyche.

In finance, we forecast macroeconomics, revenues and earnings, but the one thing that no one can forecast and COVID has certainly been a great reminder of this is the time and capability will be given to enjoy the fruits of our labors. Thankfully, I have no current health concerns, but the point is, you just never know. So despite the temptation to stay and partake in the exciting initiatives and growth we have in front of us here at Nasdaq, I have decided to stick with the five-year plan — five-year timeframe that I shared with Adena and importantly, my family when I first accepted this position.

What does make my decision easier is that, my knowledge of the strength of the team I am leaving behind, and I could not be more pleased that Ann Dennison will be taking on the CFO role. Ann has been a key member of my management team, her technical expertise, proven ability to drive change through innovation and her collaborative approach to problem solving make her the ideal candidate for this position. She is an — also an absolute pleasure to work with and is always focused on doing what’s best for the organization. I am confident that she is the right person to help drive Nasdaq [Technical Issues].

So there will be plenty of time next quarter to say proper thank yous to the Board and to Adena, to all my colleagues past and present and to you, the investors and analysts. At this point, I would just say, it has been an honor and privilege to work for and with all of you.

So now, I’d like to just drop the mic and walk away. But I think we have to turn to Q&A session now. So I’ll turn it back to the operator.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Rich Repetto with Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

Richard Repetto — Piper Sandler — Analyst

Yeah. Good morning, Adena. Good morning, Michael.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Rich.

Richard Repetto — Piper Sandler — Analyst

And Michael, despite that elegant explanation, you’re still too young to retire, we think.

Michael Ptasznik — Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Chief Financial Officer

Thank, Rich.

Richard Repetto — Piper Sandler — Analyst

No. I’m kidding. Congrats and you’ve done a great job. Anyway, so my question is, first on the Information Services on the Index revenue. So, a nice upside surprise. I guess, Adena or Michael, can you give us a better feel for how the breakout? We see that the revenue grew by more than 50%, but the Futures and Options volumes grew almost double. So, can you just give some more color how we can model this a little bit better, given your agreements with the CME and also the license AUM that grew by over 50% as well? So, how do you sort of model this a little bit better than what we have been?

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. So, thanks, Rich. I think that’s the first thing to note is, we’ve kind of given you a little bit of a guide in the past to say that that the Index Futures revenue kind of ranges from 10% to 20% of the overall revenues for the Index business. And, obviously, if ebbs and flows based on volume, so it’s not — we can’t give you a precise percentage every quarter, but this quarter it was 21%. So, it’s just at the top end of that or just above the top end of that range. And I think that that shows you the strength of the fact that we have a great relationship with CME, and I think that we have a long-term partnership with them. And the indexes that we have, particularly the Nasdaq-100 with CME is particularly a strong index this year and one where we see a lot of investor appetite, both to invest in the ETF in the product, as well as to use the futures markets to help hedge and manage their portfolios.

Richard Repetto — Piper Sandler — Analyst

Okay. That’s my — I’ll get back in the queue. Thank you.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Okay, great. Thanks, Rich.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Dan Fannon with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Daniel Fannon — Jefferies & Company — Analyst

Thanks. Good morning. I was hoping, again, if you could expand upon your comments on the Market Tech side, obviously, the short-term dynamics around some of the headwinds with revenue. But if we think about the 4Q sequential build that typically happens in that segment, how we should think about in the context of this year?

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. So I think that we kind of breakdown what we were trying to convey, the first is that, the — our ARR growth, which is really the recurring revenue stream that comes from our newer offerings that are SaaS-oriented, as well as our trade surveillance business, which is SaaS-oriented. I mean, those continue to see — you’re seeing continued growth of that 9% growth, and we continue to see that that will be a strong part of our franchise. And I think that we should recognize also that those types of implementations are more simple. They’re just — they don’t take as long to put — bring a company into the market, whether it’s the Marketplace Services Platform or to bring them onto our trade surveillance or market surveillance platform. It’s a bigger project where we still do significant on-prem deliveries, where this year we’ve definitely seen more of an impact of that. And if you think about it, there is a lot of collaboration that needs to go on between us and the clients on some of that — particularly in the post-trade deliveries and we have several post-trade deliveries that we’re working on at the moment.

And the pandemic made it harder to have that collaboration and kind of created some challenges in terms of keeping up the pace of the original delivery schedule. And we’ve gotten — we’ve got better at that as we’ve gone through the year and the clients also have gotten more used to it as well. But that I think definitely created some challenges. And then also just making sure that, in order for us to make sure we’re managing the pace of those, we have been making some increases in the tech team to make sure that we can deliver against that in this kind of constrained environment. And those are short-term issues and those are the types of revenues are non-recurring because they’re delivery revenues, but they are — they continue to be an important part of the business.

And then on change requests, it’s really a matter of our ability, we actually have the capacity to implement change requests when the clients are looking for them, but when they’re not we obviously apply the people to the implementation projects. But we also are finding that clients are making change requests for sure, but just have a lower demand for those this year because they’re managing through other issues in their own organization. So, I think you should assume there is shorter term trends that are really driven by the current environment. I guess, the nice long-term trend in terms of us increasing the percentage of sales that we’re getting through SaaS, as well as continuing to move more of our products into a more flexible delivery mode with NFF. So, I think — I’m hoping that gives you enough backdrop.

Daniel Fannon — Jefferies & Company — Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Jeremy Campbell with Barclays. Your line is open.

Jeremy Campbell — Barclays Capital — Analyst

Hey, thanks. And Michael, just want to say congratulations. I know we still have a few months left, but it’s been a pleasure working with you and best of luck. Quick question on asset manager consolidation. It seems up a bit over the past year and reportedly the pipeline is pretty active right now. I know asset managers are kind of a major client base of Nasdaq in different parts of the ecosystem. But how should we think about the pluses and minuses of asset manager consolidation as it relates to your non-recurring revenue stream at Nasdaq? And could like some of those post-deal integration be another potential near-term headwind for Market Tech?

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, on the asset manager side, we don’t actually have a lot of asset managers as clients in the Market Tech business. We tend to really focus in on market infrastructure operators, as well as the broker dealers. And we do have a small business that we’ve been growing in the surveillance business for the buy-side client. So, I think Market Tech won’t — asset manager consolidation won’t be a significant issue there.

And then if you look over in the Information Services business, we have thousands of asset manager clients. And so, you are seeing an occasional combination and that’s where we also work with them to figure out, if they are, let’s say, both of the clients are investment clients, then we’ll work with them to figure out what is the overall enterprise value going forward that they should — that we should be able to charge for investment on a combined basis versus a single basis. It’s really a matter of us working with the clients on that.

And certainly, if a client — one client is a investment client and the other one is not, then we have a chance of actually increasing our penetration in that clients as they combine. So, I think that’s the way to look at it for the eVestment business. And same with areas like Quandl and others, which are still very small and growing. There is just a huge sea, as you know, of asset managers out there for us to appeal [Phonetic] to.

On the trading side of the business, I don’t anticipate that that will have a real impact because they’re basically just managing more AUM with their trading organization and that shouldn’t have a significant impact on how much they’re trading and how they’re managing the portfolio. So, I don’t see an impact on the trading side.

Jeremy Campbell — Barclays Capital — Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Alex Kramm with UBS. Your line is open.

Alex Kramm — UBS — Analyst

Yeah. Hey. Good morning, everyone.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Hey, Alex.

Alex Kramm — UBS — Analyst

This may be better for the Investor Day, but I do want to ask about M&A. You have clearly established a pretty strong track record here over the last few years, partially helped by Michael and you obviously as well. But if I look into next year, rates are low. 2021 is going to face a really tough comp on the trading side and on the index side. And your multiple has expanded substantially. So I’m just wondering, is this — are you thinking differently about maybe bigger deals in the space. And if so, to what degree would you actually look at something that has a little bit more transactional revenues with it? And whether it could be more of a cost-driven value proposition? So, maybe a broader update on M&A would be great here. Thanks.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure, yeah. We will spend a little bit more time on that in the Investor Day, Alex. So, I think it is an area that we’ll at least give you a sense of our focus areas. But I’ll give you a little bit of a preview. I think what we’ve said all along is that, we look at acquisitions as part of fitting into our strategy. So we don’t just look at every acquisition out there opportunistically. We have really developed a strategic nexus around where we want to grow and how we want to grow. And where we think that we can do everything organically and where we might benefit from acquisitions that could catalyze growth and/or expand our clientele. And I think that the areas that we have been primarily focused on and we’ve said this many times is in expanding our Market Tech business and expanding our Information Services business in terms of growth of the sector and the industry.

And then on the marketplace, in the marketplaces, I think that we would make targeted acquisitions, if it really makes sense in terms of both synergies on the cost side and so therefore the ability to generate scale, but also that it furthers our strategy in the asset classes where we really strong. But — and all I can say is that, we look at a lot of things. We do always put them within the strategic framework so that we also stop looking at things pretty quickly if it doesn’t really fit in. And we will certainly not shy away from doing the right transactions that further our strategy. But that hasn’t changed. I mean, we’re not shifting our strategy from what we’ve been seeing over the last two years. So, we’ll spend a little more time on that at the Investor Day.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Brian Bedell with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Brian Bedell — Deutsche Bank — Analyst

Great. Thanks. Good morning, folks. And congrats, Michael, also. I know we’ll talk to you for another quarter, but just want to say congrats. So just on the sustainability of that Information Services revenue, extremely strong this quarter. Looks like it’s easy for you to now exceed the top of the 5% to 7% range even with the softness in Market Tech. But as we look at that Info Services moving into the fourth quarter and into next year, obviously, depending on volumes at CME in your contracts and ETF, AUM levels, but it seems like there would still be an upward trajectory in that line. So, just maybe some commentary about that? And to what extent any audit fees positively impacted the market data? And then just thoughts about Market Data revenue coming into ’21 with consolidation, say, in the online brokerage industry, for example, with Schwab and Ameritrade and your ability to recoup that cost?

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Okay, great. Okay. So, within the Information Services, I think one of the things that I’m particularly pleased about with this quarter is to show that there is really solid growth across all three sub-segments within Information Services. So, you have growth within the Data Analytics franchise, with the investments, Solovis, Quandl and others — other assets there. We have 5% growth in Market Data and I’ll cover that in a minute. And then we also have a very strong growth in our Index franchise.

And while there are beta elements to the Index business, I think that we have to recognize that even when we saw some — like back in the fourth quarter of 2018, where we saw the markets really go through a tumultuous period, we continue to see investor inflows into the Nasdaq-100 and other Nasdaq indexes, which really made it to that — it buffered the downward trend in the overall market cap there. So, we do think that there is just a strong secular interest and appetite among investors to invest in the Nasdaq-100, the Biotech Index, semiconductor, other thematic indexes in addition to our smart beta franchise. And we’ve seen that through both the time of upward markets swings, but also even in March. The largest inflow week that we had was the toughest market week, as the markets were declining the most, that’s when we saw I think something like $4 billion or $5 billion of inflows into the Nasdaq-100. So, we just think that the indexes that we have are more aligned with long-term themes.

But I also would say, there is obviously some beta component there and on the trading. We are making sure that we continue to generate growth there by launching new products and making sure we’re gathering AUM into those products as well and that will be a testament to our ability to do that over the next several years to continue to expand that franchise.

With regard to the Market Data business, we are continuing — I think the one thing that this year shown is that, it’s a very resilient business. And we have done a nice job of diversifying the clientele, which earlier in the year we mentioned could create some challenges just in terms of clients who are some of the newer clients in other parts of the world. But actually, we found that we continue to see really strong demand from those clients to continue to provide and expand the data that they’re providing to investors around the world. So, that’s showing up in the numbers. And, in fact, our audit revenue this quarter is significantly down from last year’s third quarter and our audit revenue for the year is down from last year. So, we’re actually not collecting as much on the back billing. We’re really — the growth that we’re seeing this quarter is really just from pure new customers. And obviously expansion of our current clients.

In terms of the consolidation and the impact of — from the online brokers, there will be some impact from that and we’ve been — we’ve known that for a long time. The nice thing is that, it takes long time to close those deals. So, we’ve had a lot of time to work with those clients and continue to make sure that they’re taking all the products that they can take from us as they become a combined organization. But we do also see continued strong demand coming from new FinTech clients. And so, I think that there is a nice balance there. But we’ve always said that that is a low- to medium-term — I mean, a low- to mid-single-digit grower, because it’s a more mature part of our business. So, hopefully, that gives you more context.

Michael Ptasznik — Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Chief Financial Officer

And Brian, the audit number was $2 million in the quarter, compared to as — an unusually high quarter of $9 million in Q3 of ’19.

Brian Bedell — Deutsche Bank — Analyst

Great. Thank you so much for all the color. Really appreciate it.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mike Carrier with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Michael Carrier — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

Hi. Good morning, and thanks for taking the question.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Hi.

Michael Carrier — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

It’s a good quarter. Just wanted to get an update on regulation. Given the DOJ working with the SEC on some areas like the Market Data. I just wanted to get your take on, particularly from a process standpoint on how this is potentially different versus the typical SEC process meeting what to expect? Thanks.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Well, to be honest, we’re reading about that the same way you are. So, I hope that — to understand that there is nothing that — we’re reading at the same time you’re reading it. So, I think that the same — so that’s the one thing I would like to say.

And secondly, I think that we’ve been able to demonstrate multiple times over a decade that we have a highly competitive market model that our products are subject to competition in the data space. And that we provide great value for investors and participants alike in the market data that we provide and I think we do it in a very responsible way. And I think we’ve proven that both to our customers and we do have very good relationship with our customers on the Market Data front despite some of the things that you see in the paper. But I have to say, behind the scenes, we continue to have very strong relationships across our clientele, as well as the fact that, in addition to that, we’ve had to defend ourselves several times now, both in a court-like situation, and I think we’ve done — we’ve been able to prove ourselves over and over again that this is a competitive space that we price our products competitively. And that we create value for people — those people who use the data. So I think that we remain very confident, Mike, in the way that we manage the business, as well as how we deliver products and we’re happy to engage with whoever wants to talk to us about that.

Michael Carrier — Bank of America Merrill Lynch — Analyst

Okay. It makes it. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Owen Lau with Oppenheimer. Your line is open.

Owen Lau — Oppenheimer & Co. — Analyst

Okay. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. So, first of all, best of luck in the future endeavors [Phonetic], Mike.

Michael Ptasznik — Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Chief Financial Officer

Thank you very much, Owen.

Owen Lau — Oppenheimer & Co. — Analyst

So for my questions –. Yeah. So for my question, could you please give us an update on the Nasdaq Private Market? Does and will SPAC impact the Private Market and change the way you look at this space? Thank you.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

That’s the first time I got that question. Good question. So, first of all, The Nasdaq Private Market continues to have solid activity this year. It has been lower this year in terms of the overall level of tenders that have been issued in the private markets this year. But generally speaking, we continue to have a good clientele in a strong service that we offer the private companies and they’re still taking advantage of managing their liquidity in the private space. But it’s been a little bit, I would say, it’s decelerated a little bit this year just based on, I think, really the volatility and understanding the way that people are managing their businesses.

But if you’re asking, I think the broader question is, because of all of the different alternative ways that companies can now tap into the public markets, are they going to continue to stay private longer? And I think that’s a good longer-term question on that, we’re going to have to see play out. So, are companies going to tap into the public markets earlier in their lifecycle, which may make it so that they have less of a demand to do tenders. I don’t think we can know the answer to that right now. I think that we are obviously seeing a lot of growth companies, but still quite mature, quite full on in terms of their overall ability to tap the public markets, I mean, we’re still seeing high valuations and strong performance companies coming into the public markets both through SPAC and through traditional IPOs and it’s been a very active year. But I also think that there are just thousands of private companies that will continue to mature in the private space before they tap the public markets.

And so, I personally think The Nasdaq Private Market will continue to have a huge opportunity. We’re really frankly barely scratching the surface of private companies liquidity right now. And so, we have a lot more we can do there. But it’s a good question as to whether more companies will come out to the public market sooner. And I just don’t know the answer yet.

Owen Lau — Oppenheimer & Co. — Analyst

That’s super helpful. Thank you, Adena.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Alex Blostein with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Alexander Blostein — Goldman Sachs — Analyst

Thanks. Hey, guys. Good morning. Question for you around Market Tech again. So understanding the near-term margin dynamics could sort of fluctuate. But I was hoping you could spend a minute and just kind of walking us through the framework for margin improvement opportunity here over time. And what I’m really kind of trying to get at is kind of what’s the incremental margin on the AAR [Phonetic] piece and sort of the revenue growth that you’ve seen there? What’s the incremental margin on some of that on-prem initiatives that you guys have? And really just kind of the incremental margin on the new order intake? I’m not sure if those are the best three kind of buckets to tackle it. But something along those lines would be helpful. Thanks.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. I don’t know if I’ll be able to answer that in detail today. It’s something we’ll — but we’ll take it back and try to figure out how we can help with that as we get into Investor Day. I think that in terms of the margin dynamics, I think what we’ve been saying all along continues to be very much the case, which is the more that we can move our clients into a stack offering, so whether it’s market — our market surveillance offering is, we’ve launched it as a SaaS offering this year and we’ve seen strong pickup there. And that — and our trade surveillance offering has always been SaaS. And those offerings definitely allow us to have a higher overall margin just because the implementation time is shorter, and it’s a recurring revenue stream. And so, it’s just a different composition of revenue that delivers a stronger margin for us.

Whereas with the on-prem implementations, we obviously managed to the margin that we think is the right way to go, but we do often do fixed price contracts there. So sometimes if an implementation ends up being longer or more complex, it can make it like — it can make it so that we end up having to put more resources to it and that can have some margin impact in the short-term on the implementation and that’s what’s happening this year. But over time, I think the more we can show that we are — the new sales we’re generating are NFF, which is a much more flexible platform and SaaS-driven and/or because some of the NFF deliveries are still on-prem, some are SaaS, as well as our surveillance business is all SaaS, the more we can drive to that higher margin. And so, it’s up to us to show you that shift in the order intake — in the type of order intake that we’re taking in. And that’s something that we want to make sure that we provide more context around at Investor Day in a few weeks.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Chris Harris with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Christopher Harris — Wells Fargo Securities — Analyst

Great, thanks. Do you think the paradigm has changed for trading in US equities and options? And really, I guess, what I’m wondering is, whether you think the volumes that we’re seeing in these markets are going to be sustainable? And why if so?

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

I think that there are two key factors that are — in our opinion, are taking volumes to different level this year. One is just overall volatility and uncertainty, and that always makes it so that — you’ve got investors who have more different opinions, right? So when there are investors that have different views on what could happen next and how the economy is going to progress, you have more volatility because those opinions all get expressed in the market and that drives more volumes. But at the same time, we also have a lot more younger retail investors coming into the markets as well. And so, I think that has to do with the fact that we do have more engagement around — with — from retail investors and those retail investors coming into the market also drive volumes up.

Now, the question is, are those retail investors is a sustainable trend? And I think that as we’ve been listening to the online brokers speak about it and we’ve been talking to our own clients about it, I think that there is a view that there is a new wave of investors have come in on the back to zero commissions, which takes down the friction in the market and therefore, increases overall access, as well as the fact that the macro environment has created some really strong investment opportunities for retail investors. And I think that that is a longer-term trend and a healthy one and an exciting one, but I don’t think every one of those retail investors will be here over the long-term. But I think we are seeing a secular shift in getting more younger investors engaged in the market, and I think that could create a more sustainably higher trading environment than with, let’s say, we saw in 2017, 2018, 2019 timeframe. But I think that time will tell. But that’s our — I think that’s our overall view just speaking with industry professionals who really understand the nature of investors coming in.

Christopher Harris — Wells Fargo Securities — Analyst

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Kyle Voigt with KBW. Your line is open.

Kyle Voigt — Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. — Analyst

Hi. Good morning. Just on the listings business, I know you cited the strong IPO market and some switches as well in the quarter. I guess, it’s still a little bit surprising that revenues grew by $5 million sequentially given those initial listing fees are amortized over several years. So, first part of the question, is there anything else to note that drove the increase there that’s more one-time in nature or should this be sustainable?

And the second part of the question, you’re still priced below the NYC for certain tiers within that listings business, given the strength and the momentum you’re seeing in the business. And I know you probably say it’s not necessarily because of low fees, it’s because the value proposition. Just wondering, do you see potential for pricing tweaks as you look out over the next year or so. Thanks.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Well, one thing just to note is that, the amortization of the initial listing fees is really the fees that get amortized, that amortization schedule did change a bit a few years or a couple of years ago. So, just a little shorter than it used to be. But you’re right that the initial listing fees do get amortized. And I think Michael is for IPOs it still over two years or two to three years?

Michael Ptasznik — Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. It depends. It’s two to four years is the timeframe. Yeah. But we also did have a — there were some pricing that was taken at the beginning of the year on the sustaining fees as well and that’s flowing through. It’s been flowing through all the quarters so far this year.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. So — and so, I would just say that, first of all, there are no kind of one-time fees that are creating that increase in the quarter. It is really just the nature of the strength of new issuance market, coupled with the strength in our Corporate Solutions business. And those are of recurring revenue streams. So I think that’s important thing to say. But I think that because of the fact that the new issuances have been high throughout the year, you’re starting to see that compounding effect of that as we get more and more issuance — issuers in the market and then they then start to generate annual listing fees, which will then create a lift going into 2021. So, that’s the — the good news is, it is kind of really just coming from the strength of new issuances. I just wanted to make sure you know that the amortization schedule is a little different than it was a few years ago.

Kyle Voigt — Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. — Analyst

Fair enough. And then just on the potential for pricing tweaks?

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Oh, right. Sorry about that. Yeah. So, we are very prudent in the way that we manage our fees. We’re very proud of the fact that we deliver a really strong value to our clients and we never want to give our top clients any reason to even consider an alternative. And fees do play a role in that. I wouldn’t say that it’s — you’re right, it’s not the reason they switch to Nasdaq. But it can be a door opener for them to consider. They’re paying $500,000 to list on New York and they’re paying $160,000 to list here, and they’re getting, frankly, in our opinion, a far superior service here. Then it allows us to open the door to a conversation and then work with them on all of the other aspects of our value proposition to have them move over. So, I would have to say the fee differential is a catalyst to conversations on switches.

And for IPOs, we think that we offer a fee structure that is a strong reflection of the value that we give to our clients. And I think it — so we feel good about how we tier our fees and the max that we charge and we’ll continue to make pricing changes periodically to reflect the increased investments we’re making in the business. But we don’t see a reason, frankly, to make a big change in our fees at the top end.

Kyle Voigt — Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. — Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We have a follow-up from Alex Kramm with UBS. Your line is open.

Alex Kramm — UBS — Analyst

Oh, hey. Yeah. My follow-up was actually just answered on the listings, but very quickly then maybe on Index and other numbers question. You gave the — I guess, a trading contribution, can you also give the AUM contribution, the exact number for this quarter?

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. I know it’s — Michael, you might have it more readily available, but I know in any given quarter it’s like 60% to 65%.

Michael Ptasznik — Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. That’s what I guess 60%, 65%. I don’t know, Ed, do you have the exact number for this quarter? But I think it’s in that range.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

I think it’s in that range, Alex. But probably towards the lower end since the Futures are at the high end.

Michael Ptasznik — Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Chief Financial Officer

Right.

Alex Kramm — UBS — Analyst

Fair enough. Thank you.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. And just to make up the difference is the data, that we should — index data, index AUM and the futures volumes are the three components in the index system.

Alex Kramm — UBS — Analyst

Yeah. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. We have a follow-up from Rich Repetto with Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

Richard Repetto — Piper Sandler — Analyst

Yeah. Hi, Adena. Couldn’t let the call go by without asking about financial transaction tax.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Oh, yeah.

Richard Repetto — Piper Sandler — Analyst

So, I guess, the question is, what are you doing to prepare, are you having discussions with legislators? I know, certainly, there has been a lot in the press about potentially moving. Is that really possible? So what are your thoughts on all this debate on the financial transactions — or a financial transaction tax?

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. So, I think the first thing to say is, we’re heavily engaged with the New Jersey Legislature and the Governor. We also have been receiving inbound calls from governors from other states, who certainly would welcome us as a data center operator or a Company that uses data centers in their states as well. The nice thing about the way that we manage our infrastructure is that, we don’t actually own any of our data centers. We work with Equinix is our partner today. And so, we do have flexibility. We’ve moved our data centers in the past. So we used to operate out of Trumbull, Connecticut, we moved to Carteret several years ago. And then also we used to be in Ashburn, Virginia for our back-up or now in Chicago. So, we do have experience moving data centers. We’ve also moved our data centers in Sweden. So, we are familiar with what that takes.

And I think that, obviously, in this particular context, it’s not just us, we have to work very, very closely with our clients because our clients are all embedded in our data centers as well. And they’ve build infrastructure to support connections between Chicago and New Jersey. So, there is an investment that would need to be made in order for us, as an ecosystem, to choose to go to a different state. But it is absolutely feasible to do it.

I think that what we’ve made clear is that, we certainly operate well in New Jersey and we have a well-established ecosystem here. And if we don’t think there is a risk of attacks, then that something that would obviously be our first choice. But if we believe that the state could impose a tax just because our data centers have to be located in their states and that tax creates friction in the market that then lessens participation from investors, particularly retail investors, then widen spreads and lowers liquidity, we have to do the responsible thing and find an environment that doesn’t introduce that friction.

And in every other case, as you know, Rich, that transaction taxes have been implemented in other countries, they have seen really negative effects on liquidity and spreads. And so, we have a lot of proof points to say friction matters, tax-accretive friction and it will be — it will have a negative impact. Right at a time when, given the volatility, we really need to maximize liquidity in the market. So, we are quite serious about it and we are heavily engaged with New Jersey and other states to understand the best long-term path forward.

Richard Repetto — Piper Sandler — Analyst

Thank you. And just I think there is a coalition among the exchanges to sort of represent your position. And I think Nasdaq is part — but I haven’t heard as much outside about it, I guess.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

I would just say that there is a wide range of participants — market participants and exchanges involved in understanding that and involved in speaking with the legislature on this issue.

Just quickly to get back to Alex Kramm’s question, the specific percentage of revenue coming from AUM in the quarter within our indexes was 63%.

Michael Ptasznik — Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Chief Financial Officer

And just to add to that, Adena, it was about 24% on the index licensing side. On the futures licensing side.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Oh, it’s 24%, not 21%. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, Richard, I hope that answers your question.

Richard Repetto — Piper Sandler — Analyst

Thank you.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Richard Repetto — Piper Sandler — Analyst

Sure, does. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ken Hill with Loop Capital. Your line is open.

Kenneth Hill — Loop Capital Markets — Analyst

Hey. Good morning. First, I also want to say congrats to Michael and Ann on the transition there. My question is on the Q’s Innovation Suite you guys launched. I know, I was just curious from an economic perspective to Nasdaq, are the new products being rolled out. Do this have any different pricing or any different economics for Nasdaq, given maybe like a lower cost product? I know you’re rolling out with the Qs or an alternative type of product there.

And then, I guess, just thinking forward, are there any other additional products you might be looking to slice and dice a little bit differently here within the index suite?

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. So, on the first point, we don’t tend to talk specifically about how we structure our fees with each individual partner, but I would say that we’re very comfortable with how we’ve built this partnership with Invesco and to make sure that we are getting properly compensated for the value of the indexes. And so, I think we feel comfortable that if the clients choose the new products or they choose the current products, we are very happy with the fee rate that we’re getting.

In terms of other new products, that’s actually the most fun part of the index team. They are always considering new strategies and new ways that we can look at both our benchmarks, like the Nasdaq-100 and the Biotech, as well as more thematic indexes to bring creativity to investors. And so, we are constantly working with our index partners to find new ways to slice dices. So, for instance, I think it was a Victory, where we also have implemented the Nasdaq Q-50, which is the next 50 stocks below the Nasdaq-100. So we have kind of different ways that people can choose to participate in the broader Nasdaq franchise through different partners.

Kenneth Hill — Loop Capital Markets — Analyst

Okay. Thanks for the color there.

Operator

Thank you. We have a question from Brian Bedell with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Brian Bedell — Deutsche Bank — Analyst

Great. Thanks for the follow-up. Just on the US cash equities market in terms of pricing and revenue capture, we sort of move into the end of the year. Two dynamics going on there, obviously, one, we’re seeing more volume getting executed off exchange. I suspect that’s a part of the retail dynamic and market maker dynamic. Maybe if you could just talk about that? And whether there is any interest in pricing initiatives to capture more of that share?

And then any sort of thoughts on Members Exchange? I know that was — it seems like that was delayed a little bit, but in terms of pricing, whether you would be doing any preemptive pricing against that exchange coming into the fourth quarter?

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Okay. So, with cash equities pricing, the first thing I would say is, as you all know, it’s something that we work on very dynamically and we make small changes to pricing almost monthly, actually, within that cash equities business. And so, I would say that, we’re always watching that and working with our clients, understand how we can bring attractive flow into the Nasdaq exchanges.

And in terms of the retail, trying to get more of the retail to come onto exchange from off exchange, you are correct that the retail trend has driven a higher level of off exchange volumes. And so, those orders were not getting subject to the price discovery that we have on market. We love to get — capture more of that, but we also reflect on the fact that the intermediaries have a payment foreclose [Phonetic] scheme that’s different than our exchange fee scheme. So, we have to work within the exchange fee structure that we are allowed to operate in, and that will limit our ability to kind of bring in a lot of that new retail office and that’s going off exchange. But we are always talking to them about on the margins, how can we get more of the retail flow to come straight to the exchange.

I think that in terms of MEMX, and the way that we’re managing that, we are highly engaged with our clients we have been now ever since they announced that they were forming MEMX. And we take every competitor seriously. And to the extent that we see changes and behaviors among our clients, we will respond to make sure that we are maximizing and optimizing our platform. And we are having those — that dialogue all the time. So I wouldn’t say that you’re going to see dramatic things but more an ongoing effort for us on pricing perspective to manage to that competitor to the extent they have early success.

Brian Bedell — Deutsche Bank — Analyst

Okay. Great. That’s very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. And there are no other questions in the queue. I’d like to turn the call back to Adena Friedman for any closing remarks.

Adena T. Friedman — President and Chief Executive Officer

Great. Thank you very much. Well, I just want to thank you all, and I do want to again thanks, Michael, for just an amazing time together. And we’ve had — we really are great partners, and he has also done a spectacular job of preparing Ann for the role. He’s sponsored her and mentored her. I’ve had a chance to work very closely with Ann over the years. And so, I just can’t be more excited to say that, despite the fact that we’re very sad to see Michael leave, we’re excited for him in his next step, and we are just thrilled that we have such a strong internal candidate to come in and take the role of CFO.

And, of course, you get to see Michael a lot over the next few months, including at our Investor Day, which is on November 10, and we hope that you all join us either virtually or in-person, and we look forward to that. So thank you all very much, and have a great day.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]