MarketAxess brings electronic bond trading efficiency to Asia
The biggest source of capital for the world's corporate giants and industry leaders, fixed-income investments are vital for any business seeking capital stability, liquidity and diversification. Inefficient trading methods for fixed-income securities, however, prevented institutional investors from maximising returns - until MarketAxess revolutionised Wall Street.
The biggest source of capital for the world's corporate giants and industry leaders, fixed-income investments are vital for any business seeking capital stability, liquidity and diversification. Inefficient trading methods for fixed-income securities, however, prevented institutional investors from maximising returns - until MarketAxess revolutionised Wall Street.
But first, CEO Rick McVey paid close attention to what investors needed, using the expertise he built as former managing director and head of North America fixed-income sales for JP Morgan. His response was MarketAxess, the pioneering electronic trading platform that combines convenience and competitive pricing.
Using a patented trading technology, MarketAxess provides access to global liquidity in US high-grade corporate bonds, European bonds, high-yield and emerging markets bonds, agency bonds, asset-backed and preferred securities, and credit default swaps. Since 2000, the platform has grown to connect broker-dealer firms and more than 1,000 premier institutional investors, including the largest global asset manager, BlackRock.
MarketAxess is now the biggest global credit e-trading platform in the US. It controls more than 85 per cent of the country's electronic corporate fixed-income trading, with about 17 per cent of the total market for US investment-grade credit trading over it every day.
"Beyond introducing a game-changer to a fixed-income industry that used to rely solely on error-prone phone transactions, MarketAxess created a safer, transparent and more efficient trading environment," says Kevin McPherson, global head of sales. "MarketAxess empowers investors to go out to as many dealers as possible and find the best prices. Its paperless functionality allows clients to trade multiple securities at a time, minimising their transaction and overall costs."
It is this same innovative platform that MarketAxess aims to further expand into the Asia-Pacific as it reinforced its commitment to the region with the opening of its Hong Kong office earlier this year.
The new facility complements the company's existing offices in Singapore, New York, London, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and São Paulo. It also supports MarketAxess' electronic platform for local currency debt trading in Asia-Pacific credit - the most comprehensive offering of its kind in the region.
"The uptake in electronic trading for the institutional market in Asia-Pacific credit and local market debt may relatively be in its infancy, but it has tremendous potential," McPherson says.
"We are excited for local and global investors - both are poised for so much growth as the market matures and technologies advance. MarketAxess is a perfect fit to help Asia-Pacific investors maximise returns the same way our clients in other parts of the world already do."
