Fixed income trading platform TradeWeb is reporting EUR1 billion of transactions in the first week of trading on its new euro commercial paper (ECP) system.
The system allows users to access the combined inventories of six of the largest ECP dealers, including Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan.
Beta testing of the product commenced on 26 November 2002, with 5 dealers and 10 institutional investors. The total number of trades carried out during this beta period was over 250, with an average trade size of EUR20 million. The total volume for this period was over EUR5 billion, with the majority of ECP trades in euros, sterling, Swiss francs and US dollars.
Trevor Denton of T. Rowe Price, member of the test group, says the system has improved efficiency and transparency in the ECP market. "TradeWeb's ECP product not only saves me valuable time but has vastly improved transparency and liquidity."
The live testing group of institutional investors comprised of money funds, corporates and sovereigns, with a geographic spread of 40% UK and 60% continental Europe.
Lee Olesky, president of TradeWeb Group and CEO of TradeWeb Europe, comments: "Even in this live test period, we have already gained approximately 2% of the total turnover in the ECP market. Given the limited number of investors taking part in the test period, this proves very promising."
He says with the addition of ECP, TradeWeb Europe had a record month in January, of over EUR120 billion across all products.