Best of the Best Awards 2024
A siA A sse t MAnAgeMentMarketAxess
Enhancing fixed income e-trading
across APAC By Paul Mackintosh
MarketAxess is the
leading fixed income
electronic trading platform
for institutional investors
and dealers. Originally
founded in 2000, it is now
a market leader in the
electronic trading of global
fixed income markets.
Resilience
As winner of Asia Asset
Management’s 2024
Best of the Best regional
award for Best Securities
Trading Platform, the MarketAxess platform has continued
to show strength and resilience in 2023, says MarketAxess’
Head of Asia-Pacific Riad Chowdhury. In the second half of
the year, the firm recorded monthly year-on-year growth
rates ranging from 18% in June to 65% in December. This
resulted in an overall 17% increase in trade volume year-on-
year for Asia.
MarketAxess’ ability to help clients access deeper
liquidity was a key reason for the growth in Chowdhury’s
view. This was evident by the increased adoption of
MarketAxess’ Open Trading, a unique trading ecosystem that
connects the world’s largest all-to-all credit liquidity pool.
With new enhancements added throughout the past year,
MarketAxess now has over 2,000 firms that leverage its
trading technology and data to efficiently trade fixed-income
securities globally.
Over the course of 2023, MarketAxess has expanded
its product range and geographical footprint, particularly
in Asia. The platform now covers 28 local debt markets,
of which eight are Asian – the most extensive offering in the
region. These include China (CNY), Hong Kong (HKD),
South Korea (KRW), Malaysia (MYR), the Philippines (PHP),
Singapore (SGD), and Thailand (THB). To underscore the
region’s growing importance, Chowdhury points out that in
2023 Asia local market debt trade volume has grown to
represent approximately 33% of global local markets trade
volume on the MarketAxess platform.
The role of automation
MarketAxess’ clients are increasingly incorporating
automation into their trading strategies, Chowdhury reveals.
In 2023, trades using Auto-X Request-for-Quote (RFQ),
the platform’s tool for automated, lower-touch liquidity
acquisition, saw a 38% increase year-on-year growth
globally. On the other side of the trade, volumes using
Auto-X Responder, MarketAxess’ tool for automated liquidity
provision, also doubled in 2023 from the previous year.
Complementary to Open Trading and Auto-X, explains
Chowdhury, is CP+, MarketAxess’ real-time pricing engine
that has pioneered a new era of smart trading. CP+ allows
investors to leverage the power of machine learning to
observe prices more accurately based on actionable, rather
than indicative, transaction data. Through leveraging the
superior breadth of data from MarketAxess’ trading system,
CP+ provides some of the most accurate and relevant price
data possible to clients, including for the Asian fixed income
markets. In Chowdhury’s estimation, this product suite leads
the market in its breadth of coverage and its single shop
window for market data and pricing data.
Over the past year, he adds, CP+ was further enhanced
to expand to price nearly 300,000 bonds across global,
corporate and emerging markets (EM). As a key driver
behind the platform’s success with Open Trading and
Auto-X in 2023, Chowdhury concludes, CP+ has also been
instrumental in helping MarketAxess’ clients achieve
improved trading outcomes and serves as a benchmark for
the firm’s automated execution protocols.
Looking forward
On the outlook for 2024, Chowdhury shares details of
MarketAxess’ plan for Asia – built on the resilience and
adaptability of its bond markets through technology
innovation and client partnerships.
Data is becoming an indispensable part of trader
workflows, Chowdhury adds. In 2023, MarketAxess launched
X-Pro in the US, the platform’s new data-driven fixed income
trading user interface. He also notes that X-Pro leverages
MarketAxess’ proprietary analytics and execution protocols
to deliver an intuitive, intelligent workflow for traders and
portfolio managers. Through this next generation interface,
it provides enhanced low and high-touch trading workflows,
from full automation with Auto-X to enhanced RFQ and
high-touch portfolio and block trading. Currently leveraged
by some of MarketAxess’ biggest clients globally, X-Pro is set
to go live in Asia by early 2025.
MarketAxess will also continue to expand its Asia local
currency bonds offering, further enhancing its Open Trading
network to offer all-to-all trading for a greater number of
emerging market local currency bonds, Chowdhury concludes. ■
Riad Chowdhury
A siA A sse t MAnAgeMentMarketAxess
Enhancing fixed income e-trading
across APAC By Paul Mackintosh
MarketAxess is the
leading fixed income
electronic trading platform
for institutional investors
and dealers. Originally
founded in 2000, it is now
a market leader in the
electronic trading of global
fixed income markets.
Resilience
As winner of Asia Asset
Management’s 2024
Best of the Best regional
award for Best Securities
Trading Platform, the MarketAxess platform has continued
to show strength and resilience in 2023, says MarketAxess’
Head of Asia-Pacific Riad Chowdhury. In the second half of
the year, the firm recorded monthly year-on-year growth
rates ranging from 18% in June to 65% in December. This
resulted in an overall 17% increase in trade volume year-on-
year for Asia.
MarketAxess’ ability to help clients access deeper
liquidity was a key reason for the growth in Chowdhury’s
view. This was evident by the increased adoption of
MarketAxess’ Open Trading, a unique trading ecosystem that
connects the world’s largest all-to-all credit liquidity pool.
With new enhancements added throughout the past year,
MarketAxess now has over 2,000 firms that leverage its
trading technology and data to efficiently trade fixed-income
securities globally.
Over the course of 2023, MarketAxess has expanded
its product range and geographical footprint, particularly
in Asia. The platform now covers 28 local debt markets,
of which eight are Asian – the most extensive offering in the
region. These include China (CNY), Hong Kong (HKD),
South Korea (KRW), Malaysia (MYR), the Philippines (PHP),
Singapore (SGD), and Thailand (THB). To underscore the
region’s growing importance, Chowdhury points out that in
2023 Asia local market debt trade volume has grown to
represent approximately 33% of global local markets trade
volume on the MarketAxess platform.
The role of automation
MarketAxess’ clients are increasingly incorporating
automation into their trading strategies, Chowdhury reveals.
In 2023, trades using Auto-X Request-for-Quote (RFQ),
the platform’s tool for automated, lower-touch liquidity
acquisition, saw a 38% increase year-on-year growth
globally. On the other side of the trade, volumes using
Auto-X Responder, MarketAxess’ tool for automated liquidity
provision, also doubled in 2023 from the previous year.
Complementary to Open Trading and Auto-X, explains
Chowdhury, is CP+, MarketAxess’ real-time pricing engine
that has pioneered a new era of smart trading. CP+ allows
investors to leverage the power of machine learning to
observe prices more accurately based on actionable, rather
than indicative, transaction data. Through leveraging the
superior breadth of data from MarketAxess’ trading system,
CP+ provides some of the most accurate and relevant price
data possible to clients, including for the Asian fixed income
markets. In Chowdhury’s estimation, this product suite leads
the market in its breadth of coverage and its single shop
window for market data and pricing data.
Over the past year, he adds, CP+ was further enhanced
to expand to price nearly 300,000 bonds across global,
corporate and emerging markets (EM). As a key driver
behind the platform’s success with Open Trading and
Auto-X in 2023, Chowdhury concludes, CP+ has also been
instrumental in helping MarketAxess’ clients achieve
improved trading outcomes and serves as a benchmark for
the firm’s automated execution protocols.
Looking forward
On the outlook for 2024, Chowdhury shares details of
MarketAxess’ plan for Asia – built on the resilience and
adaptability of its bond markets through technology
innovation and client partnerships.
Data is becoming an indispensable part of trader
workflows, Chowdhury adds. In 2023, MarketAxess launched
X-Pro in the US, the platform’s new data-driven fixed income
trading user interface. He also notes that X-Pro leverages
MarketAxess’ proprietary analytics and execution protocols
to deliver an intuitive, intelligent workflow for traders and
portfolio managers. Through this next generation interface,
it provides enhanced low and high-touch trading workflows,
from full automation with Auto-X to enhanced RFQ and
high-touch portfolio and block trading. Currently leveraged
by some of MarketAxess’ biggest clients globally, X-Pro is set
to go live in Asia by early 2025.
MarketAxess will also continue to expand its Asia local
currency bonds offering, further enhancing its Open Trading
network to offer all-to-all trading for a greater number of
emerging market local currency bonds, Chowdhury concludes. ■
Riad Chowdhury
