A conversation with Patrick Bailey, Head of Open Trading & DealerAxess EMEA & APAC

When Patrick Bailey, Head of Open Trading^® and DealerAxess EMEA & APAC, joined MarketAxess in 2016, he brought with him a decade of experience as a sell-side trader that had navigated corporate bonds through significant market volatility and challenging trading conditions. Nearly ten years later, Patrick has not only helped drive one of the most significant transformations in fixed-income electronic trading—the MarketAxess all-to-all network, Open Trading—but he also now leads the DealerAxess initiative in EMEA & APAC, which was launched in 2024.

Patrick’s journey at MarketAxess has taken him to Singapore and Hong Kong, where he spent six years establishing Open Trading in Asia. Now, in London, he has seen firsthand how influential and essential Open Trading has become. "The size, scale, and reach have been the most important features of Open Trading since I joined," Patrick explains.

The numbers tell a compelling story of growth. When Patrick joined MarketAxess, global Open Trading volumes stood at approximately $650 million. Today, that figure has surged to $4.7 billion. In Europe alone, Open Trading has grown from $50-80 million per day to more than $1 billion daily. This exponential growth reflects not just market adoption, but the fundamental shift toward all-to-all trading in credit markets, with MarketAxess leading the charge as the largest all-to-all network.

One of Patrick's key initiatives has been recognizing that successful e-trading isn't just about technology—it's about adapting to how different market participants work. This understanding led to the development of DealerAxess, an initiative designed specifically for dealer trading styles and preferences that acts as a digital trading partner. DealerAxess provides dealers with continuous desk support and familiar interaction patterns, replicating the environment they experience in their daily sell-side operations.

DealerAxess has been particularly successful in promoting dealer-initiated protocols, primarily Dealer RFQ and Mid-X. By providing dealers with the same level of on-demand support they expect from sales desks and inter-dealer brokers, MarketAxess has created a more inclusive trading environment where dealers feel comfortable engaging with all our available protocols. DealerAxess is an initiative that relies heavily on collaboration across Dealer Sales, Open trading and support functions which Patrick cites as key for its success.

Mid-X, MarketAxess's anonymous matching sessions using CP+™ mid-price, represents one of the most exciting developments in Patrick's current roadmap. The protocol is rapidly expanding globally, with recent launches in Europe and Asia—including innovative Asia-European crossover sessions. While continuous matching is often seen as a long-term solution, Patrick explains that credit markets aren't quite ready for that step. "There's still an advantage to having concentrated pool liquidity rather than a dispersed pool," he notes. "There's still benefit to having predefined session windows where traders know it makes sense to enter their positions."

Automation has become a critical outcome for Open Trading's evolution. Patrick describes Open Trading as the "catalyst to turbocharge the scale of potential liquidity" for both initiators and responders. The platform now supports systematic liquidity providers, hedge fund liquidity providers, and dealer bank algorithmic desks—who have scaled from responding to hundreds of trades daily to tens of thousands.

"In order to recycle that risk, they need a broad and consistent liquidity pool, and Open Trading is the perfect option to maximize that capability," Patrick explains. This automation-driven growth has attracted a new generation of market participants while maintaining the human touch through dedicated trading desk support.

Despite the push toward automation, Patrick emphasizes that high-touch service remains crucial. The Open Trading Desk, staffed by experienced ex-traders and brokers, provides the same level of service clients expect from their top dealers.

Open Trading represented approximately 35% of platform activity in Q1 2025, making it the #1 counterparty on the platform, Patrick argues that clients should expect number-one-level service as a result. The desk handles sensitive trading information, facilitates upsizing, and provides broader facilitation services—particularly when clients are accessing newer and unfamiliar liquidity sources.

Patrick adds that one of the most innovative recent developments is Disclosed Open Trading, a hybrid solution that addresses the market's growing demand for transparency while maintaining the benefits of all-to-all. The protocol allows clients to isolate dealer liquidity within the open trading network on a name give-up basis. They can continue to show the inquiry to the broader OT network or reduce it to a single bilateral interaction. “This throws up a lot of potential for new trading opportunities,” Patrick explains

The solution serves two primary use cases: specialized dealers can demonstrate their superior liquidity by revealing their identity when responding, while clients and dealers can more broadly test new liquidity sources without the operational burden of full onboarding processes. This removes a huge operational and KYC burden for both the client and dealer."

Patrick identifies several key trends shaping the current roadmap: dealer liquidity solutions, on-demand liquidity, and the persistent demand for transparency and data. Recent market volatility events have reinforced the importance of all-to-all platforms, with MarketAxess consistently serving as the number one provider of true all-to-all networks, according to a recent Coalition Greenwich report.

"You can never predict volatility in the market, but what you can predict is the ability of Open Trading to respond during that volatility," Patrick says. This reliability has become increasingly important as both clients and dealers rely more heavily on all-to-all platforms during times of market stress.

As MarketAxess continues to evolve its Open Trading platform, the focus remains on solving real market problems through innovative technology and service. From the global expansion of Mid-X to the transparency benefits of Disclosed Open Trading—and from the dealer-friendly approach of DealerAxess to the high-touch service of the Open Trading Desk, the platform continues to adapt to meet changing market demands.

Patrick's journey at MarketAxess illustrates the broader transformation of fixed-income markets. As electronic trading becomes increasingly sophisticated, the winners will be those who can combine cutting-edge technology with deep market understanding and superior service—exactly what MarketAxess has built over the past 25 years.