LiquidityHub Limited, a consortium of the leading banks in the fixed income markets for the aggregation of liquidity and market data in support of electronic trading, today announced that its existing 12 members are now joined by three more of the world's leading banks.
These banks are ABN AMRO, HSBC and Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking.
Robert MacLeod, CEO of LiquidityHub commented, "We are delighted that the LiquidityHub community is growing with the valuable additions of ABN AMRO, HSBC and Société Générale. We believe we have a compelling proposition to attract the leading players in fixed income to this market initiative to develop and leverage electronic trading across the interest rate derivatives market. Our vision of developing deeper pools of liquidity via aggregation between leading fixed income players to optimise new market opportunities is gaining momentum."
Commenting on the announcement, Paul Humphrey, Global Head of eBusiness at ABN AMRO said, "We are committed to offering our clients electronic solutions which are compelling, competitive and innovative. Being part of LiquidityHub will provide a new multi-dealer environment which further enhances our eOffering to clients and, in doing so, underlines our commitment to leading the evolution of interest rate swaps in the electronic arena."
Samir Assaf Head of Global Markets, EMEA, HSBC said, "As a bank with a global reach and strong capabilities in the fixed income space, we are continually looking for innovative ways to maximise market dynamics. We have seen the benefits derived from electronic trading across other asset classes, while the interest rate swaps market has remained underdeveloped. LiquidityHub represents an opportunity to leverage the deep pools of aggregated liquidity in the market while maximising efficiency."
"Our participation with Liquidity Hub supports our clients' choice and flexibility in their access route to liquidity and provides them with the consistent quality and breadth of service they expect from Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking. We have a strong commitment to e-commerce and look forward to contributing to this market initiative," said Serge Topolanski, Head of Flow Trading for Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking.
Separately, LiquidityHub Limited, a consortium of the leading banks in the fixed income markets for the aggregation of liquidity and market data in support of electronic trading, today announced distribution agreements with Reuters and Bloomberg to facilitate trading over both these platforms.
Bloomberg and Reuters were chosen to carry LiquidityHub due to their market expertise and experience. Trading will be available from existing desktop connections to Bloomberg and Reuters' platforms, enabling unprecedented accessibility between clients and dealers. The new service will deliver connectivity to deeper liquidity pools throughout the interest rate swaps and US government bonds markets.
Following growing demand from the market, LiquidityHub will introduce a new trading protocol, Request for Stream (RFS), allowing the buy-side to view a stream of executable prices from a selected group of known dealers once a trade session has been initiated. Instead of static pricing information, market participants using LiquidityHub will be able to view dynamic streaming updates based on real time pricing.
The LiquidityHub infrastructure has been designed to facilitate expansion into further products and protocols. The initial product group of interest rate swaps and US Treasuries will be augmented by the introduction of European Government Bonds at a future time. This will afford further benefits of increased liquidity, improved client access to be replicated in other financial markets.
Robert MacLeod, Chief Executive Officer, Liquidity Hub commented, "We are excited to be working with Bloomberg and Reuters to deliver our service to the marketplace. The involvement of Bloomberg and Reuters will allow price takers to access the deep liquidity pool provided by the LiquidityHub dealers through their chosen desktop provider. Electronic trading in the fixed income markets continues to grow in importance with dealers and their clients and we believe that the IRS market is the next logical place for electronic trading to have a meaningful impact."
Commenting on the announcement, Russel Levi, Bloomberg said, "The addition of LiquidityHub as an option for users of the BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL service is part of our mission to provide every available pool of liquidity for our customers. The addition of LiquidityHub will allow Bloomberg's users to maximise additional opportunities in the market."
Andrew Hausman, Global Head of Fixed Income, Reuters, commented, "Partnering with LiquidityHub enables Reuters to leverage our open systems in order to offer our customers access to deep liquidity for trading interest rate swaps and US government bonds, further strengthening our cross asset trading proposition. We are pleased to be partnering with LiquidityHub to bring automation to the interest rate swaps and bond markets. "
Additionally, as technology's role becomes more critical in the pursuit of electronic trading, provision of STP capability will become an essential ingredient of successful initiatives. LiquidityHub is committed to promote STP in all its product areas to further increase efficiency and cost effectiveness throughout the post trade process.