Xtracter, which has been part of the Euroclear portfolio since 2009, currently employs 70 people from its offices in London. The acquisition will significantly expand MarketAxess' position in Europe as regulators push for more transparency and improvements in post-trade risk reduction in fixed income markets.

Rick McVey, MarketAxess CEO, says: "Xtrakter is a leading provider of regulatory trade reporting to the UK Financial Services Authority and other similar Continental European authorities and is well positioned to play a key role in the UK and other European markets as regulators look to reduce trade settlement risk and increase market transparency under the proposed MiFID II mandate."

In 2011, Xtrakter processed 950 million transactions on behalf of its user community and currently provides a range of data services for net asset valuations, mark-to-market calculations, fixed-income portfolio mapping, liquidity and volume modeling, as well as reference data population updates.

McVey says MarketAxess expects to complete the acquisition in the first quarter of 2013, subject to regulatory approval.

News of the deal comes as MarketAxess reports $48.3 million in third quarter revenue, up 3.6% on the year earlier period. Pre-tax income was $21.2 million, compared to $22.3 million for the third quarter of 2011, a decrease of 4.9%, as the firm experienced a fall off in technology service fees and an 11.5% increase in expenses to $27.0 million. The latter includes $0.5 million of Xtrakter acquisition-related costs.