NEW YORK and LONDON, Jan. 28, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:MKTX), the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, and the provider of market data and post-trade services for the global fixed-income markets, announced record global Emerging Market (EM) trading volumes of $146 billion during 2015, representing a 30% increase in trading volumes compared to the previous year.
MarketAxess further expanded its group of global liquidity providers for EM trading during 2015, and added to its breadth of currencies available on the platform. Local market debt trading was the fastest growing product on MarketAxess during 2015, up 208% compared to 2014.
Kevin McPherson, Global Head of Sales at MarketAxess, said: "We're in a new phase of uncertainty for emerging market fixed-income. Trends in volatility and correlations are rapidly changing, influenced by oil prices, China's growth prospects, divergences in monetary policy and a host of other factors. Taking advantage of the shifts in emerging markets requires ready access to truly global liquidity. MarketAxess seamlessly connects global dealers and investors on a centralized network, and help them efficiently source fixed income liquidity across a broad universe of currencies.”
EM trading volumes on MarketAxess from European clients increased 44% during 2015. The addition of nine dealers in the region greatly expanded liquidity in local market debt trading. In addition, a number of existing dealers expanded their product coverage for local currencies, most recently with the addition of Societe Generale as a liquidity provider for Russian Ruble (RUB) and Hungarian Forint (HUF). This is on top of the banks’ existing product range which includes Polish Zloty (PLN) and Mexican Peso (MXN).
Boris Bruck, Local Markets CEEMEA Head of Trading at Societe Generale, added: “MarketAxess has an extensive global offering for Emerging Market local and hard currency electronic trading. We are very pleased to expand our product coverage on the platform with more European local currencies, a recognized strength of the Societe Generale EM platform. In 2016, we look forward to expanding our local currencies offering on MarketAxess.”
In Latin America, five dealers joined MarketAxess in 2015 to provide liquidity in Latin American local market debt trading. Trading volumes on MarketAxess in Latin American corporate bonds increased 11% compared to a year ago despite a 4% decline in market volumes, according to TRACE data.
In addition to our recent expansion in Asia, liquidity providers in Asia are increasingly providing liquidity in-region with approximately 20% of Asian bond trading taking place during Asian trading hours. Ease of local market access continues to be a key driver in supporting electronic trading on MarketAxess in the region.
Today, MarketAxess offers global 24-hour electronic debt trading for three major EM regions – Europe, Asia and Latin America. The MarketAxess trading system connects institutional investors to over 50 global EM liquidity providers for access to trade corporate and sovereign debt denominated in over 22 local market currencies.
About MarketAxess
MarketAxess operates a leading electronic trading platform that enables fixed-income market participants to efficiently trade corporate bonds and other types of fixed-income instruments using MarketAxess’ patented trading technology. Over 1,000 institutional investor and broker-dealer firms are active users of the MarketAxess trading platform, accessing global liquidity in U.S. high-grade corporate bonds, emerging markets and high-yield bonds, European bonds, U.S. agency bonds, credit default swaps and other fixed-income securities. MarketAxess SEF Corporation has received temporary registration from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to operate a swap execution facility. MarketAxess also offers a number of trading-related products and services, including: market data to assist clients with trading decisions; connectivity solutions that facilitate straight-through processing; technology services to optimize trading environments; and execution services for exchange-traded fund managers and other clients. Through its Trax® division, MarketAxess also offers a range of pre- and post-trade services, including trade matching, regulatory transaction reporting and market and reference data, across a range of fixed-income products. Trax is the trading name of Xtrakter Ltd., a MarketAxess group company.
MarketAxess maintains its headquarters in New York and has offices in London, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, São Paulo, Hong Kong and Singapore. For more information, please visit www.marketaxess.com.