The London Stock Exchange's new retail bond market, gone live on the 1st of February, has selected Gatelab's traderpath as the front-end technology for trading and quoting.
The GATElab's traderpath platform, built in response to buy-side and sell-side needs, is a new generation brokering platform with professional high-end trading, quoting and algorithmic support.
In 2004 traderpath technology was 'white-labelled' to BIt Systems, part of the Borsa Italiana Group, for whom GATElab developed the BTS (BIt Trading Station) and BCS (BIt Clearing Station). To date about 90 Financial Institutions are using these services.
The new initiative by the London Stock Exchange is modelled on Borsa Italiana's MOT market which saw EUR 230 billion worth of trading in 2009. The London Stock Exchange's new retail bond market has been introduced to respond to private investors' demand for wider access to trading in fixed income securities. An initial offering of UK gilts and corporate bonds, tradable in small, more easily manageable denominations, will be made available for trading on the new electronic Order book for Retail Bonds (ORB). The market will be supported by dedicated market makers and liquidity providers quoting tradable prices on-screen, meaning that private investors will be able to enjoy the benefits of the same market model they current use for share trading.
The new market is supported by dedicated market makers. Evolution Securities has committed to a leading role and will make markets across all of the gilts and corporate securities on the service. In addition, Shore Capital Stockbrokers will make markets in corporate bonds and ABN Amro is committed to quoting in the new RBS bond.
Antonio Caroselli, CTO at GATElab, said: "Our product offering is enforced by this announcement. We are proud to be the first company to provide its clients with the ability to connect and quote on the London Stock Exchange's new retail bond market".
Pietro Poletto, Head of Fixed Income Markets at the London Stock Exchange Group, said: "The successful go live of Evolution, the first market maker on the new Londonon Stock Exchange's market, is just the first step in our plans considering the interest shown by issuers, member firms and private investors. This is the answer to our client's growing request for a centralized and transparent order book for trading in individual retail-friendly sized bonds".