BNP Paribas has become the 14th market maker to join electronic bond trading platform TradeWeb's agency dealer group.
The other dealers are Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital, JP Morgan, Greenwich Capital, ABN AMRO, Bear Stearns and UBS Warburg.
The TradeWeb Agency platform enables institutional investors in the US and Europe to view live, 2-sided pricing for US agency debt securities and to trade those securities with leading market makers.
The platform also features electronic straight-through processing of trades, providing dealers and customers with paperless trade allocations and confirmations on its fully-integrated TradeXpress network.
The addition of BNP Paribas comes at a time when trading volume on TradeWeb's agency platform is climbing steadily, with average monthly volume exceeding $35 billion and over $688 billion traded since the product launch in August 2000.
Bob Alter, head trader, US agency desk at BNP Paribas says: "We view TradeWeb as a method by which we can expand our distribution capabilities while providing our customers with a fast and efficient trade execution tool."
BNP Paribas already participates on TradeWeb as a market maker for the US treasuries platform.