A new partnership between the Australian Bond Exchange and fintech firm Iress will enable Australian private investors, self-managed superannuation fund trustees, brokers, financial advisers, and other market participants to digitally invest directly in Australian bonds.
The Australian Bond Exchange is Australia’s pre-eminent marketplace for investing in Australian bonds, enabling private investors to transact in parcels as small as AUD10,000 without the fees of managed funds or exchange-traded funds or the high costs of the over-the-counter market.
“We’re pioneering a new bond market for all Australians, giving private investors access to opportunities previously the domain of large institutions. This has meant that until now most Australians have been unable to participate in this very important investment market,” says Bradley McCosker, chief executive officer and managing director of the Australian Bond Exchange.
“As the recent coronavirus-driven market volatility and the preceding Global Financial Crisis showed, the fact that private investors’ portfolios are dominated by equities exposes them to significant risks of loss of capital and income. During the GFC, bonds outperformed most other asset classes and that is also proving to be the case now.
“Increasing numbers of Australians are now entering retirement, and their ability to generate sustainable retirement income is severely compromised by substantial falls in their superannuation balances as a result of recent sharemarket volatility. By investing directly in bonds, Australians can now diversify their sources of income, reduce portfolio risks, and benefit from the security and peace of mind that bond investors enjoy,” says McCosker.
Users of Iress Pro, ViewPoint and Xplan will be able to access all the bonds admitted to trading status on the Australian Bond Exchange platform through integration with Iress’ software. This provides clients with the ability to view real-time pricing data, subscribe to datafeeds and directly place execution orders, making the process of researching, tracking and trading corporate bonds as simple and easy as trading shares.
“Driven by demand from users across our client base, we’re excited to have built a simpler, more efficient way to access the corporate bond market,” says Kirsty Gross, managing director, Financial Markets, Iress. “The new electronic interface removes inefficient, manual data entry processes, making it easier for brokers to see their clients’ total position as well as place orders and receive execution messages from the Australian Bond Exchange.”
