MarketAxess Holdings has reported record local market debt trading volumes for August 2015, up 356 per cent compared to August 2014, as growth accelerated across its Emerging Market (EM) products.
Year-to-date through the end of August 2015 total EM volumes on MarketAxess were up 26 per cent compared to the previous year, with trading volumes for local market debt up 187 per cent over the same period. The increased trading in local market debt has been driven by an expansion in global liquidity on the platform, with broader dealer participation, and a wider range of currencies available to global market participants.
Earlier this year, JP Morgan began offering all CEEMEA currencies on MarketAxess, bringing the total number of EM dealers offering liquidity on MarketAxess to 39. In July, Nomura also expanded its CEEMEA local market debt offering, adding South Africa (ZAR), Poland (PLN) and Hungary (HUF) to the currencies it offers on the platform.
Through its subsidiary, Trax, MarketAxess now also offers unique EM data, including price and volume data via Axess All, the first intra-day trade tape for European fixed income markets. Axess All includes information on the most active bonds traded by European market participants, including CEEMEA corporate and sovereign debt, in both hard currency and local currency.
Sandy White (pictured), Emerging Markets Product Manager at MarketAxess, says: "According to EMTA, approximately half of all emerging market trading is in local currencies. We have been focused on expanding our EM capabilities to provide our clients with the most comprehensive global offering for Local Market debt trading. We have the deepest liquidity pool for EM trading including the major, specialist and regional dealers, along with the broadest range of currencies of any electronic platform, with 21 global currencies available across CEEMEA, Asia-Pacific and Latin America."
Kevin McPherson, Global Head of Sales, says: "MarketAxess has the most extensive network for credit trading – over 1,000 leading institutional investors and dealers are already connected to our platform to trade a wide range of credit products. Available data* from FINRA TRACE and Trax show overall EM market volumes down approximately 10 per cent year-over-year, implying that our volume growth has been a result of growing market share. Global dealers and investors, no matter where
they are located, are now able to trade with any other participant on the platform."
