MarketAxess Holdings (Nasdaq: MKTX), the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for U.S. and European high-grade corporate bonds, high yield bonds, emerging markets bonds, credit default swaps (CDS) and other types of fixed-income securities, today announced it has received regulatory approval from the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) to operate its trading platform in Quebec, Canada.
MarketAxess has been operating in Ontario since 2008, and is a member of IIROC and the Canada Investor Protection Fund (CIPF).
Institutional investors in Ontario and Quebec can trade US dollar and Euro-denominated corporate debt, emerging market corporate and sovereign debt and credit default swaps (CDS) on the MarketAxess trading platform. Institutional investor clients benefit from MarketAxess' patented request-for-quote (RFQ) technology to request competitive, executable bids or offers from multiple broker-dealers, and execute with their dealer of choice.
Kevin McPherson, Head of Sales for MarketAxess, said "Electronic trading can help investors more easily source fixed income liquidity and improve trade execution. As the leading global electronic trading platform for corporate bonds, we've seen how investors benefit from increased transparency and efficiency through electronic execution. We have also identified significant, quantifiable cost savings when trading bonds electronically versus the phone. We are excited to expand our institutional trading community in Canada to provide access to the largest and deepest liquidity pool for the credit markets."
MarketAxess will exhibit and attend the OTC Derivatives Regulatory Reform conference in Toronto on April 25-26 hosted by Infonex. Meet with MarketAxess representatives at our booth to learn more about electronic trading of corporate bonds and CDS.
MarketAxess offers CDS single-name and index trading for US, European and emerging markets products. Currently, nine global broker-dealers are streaming live, executable pricing for CDS indices. According to the proposed regulatory framework in the U.S., MarketAxess plans to register and operate as a swap execution facility (SEF) to trade CDS.