TradeWeb to Unveil Bond Trading System in June

A TradeWeb news release said the new platform has more than 150 users from buy-side firms and seven dealers providing liquidity. Citigroup and Deutsche Bank recently joined Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley as liquidity.

TradeWeb said it recently added Bid & Offer List execution functionality to the platform, which allows buy-side investors to complete large multi-trade transactions online and execute at the best price. Using its platform gives buy-side clients liquidity, integration of data from the Trade Reporting Compliance Engine (TRACE), a bond pricing service of the National Association of Securities Dealers data, and straight-through processing capabilities on one screen, according to the announcement.

Privately held TradeWeb Group LLC, owned by eight of the world’s largest investment banks, agreed in April to be acquired by Thomson for $385 million in cash, plus payments of up to $150 million over the next three years.

TradeWeb will compete with MarketAxess, another multi-dealer platform that connects investors with broker-dealers. MarketAxess said it traded about $45 billion of U.S. high-grade corporate bonds in the first quarter.

Started in 1998, TradeWeb also offers electronic trading of U.S. Treasuries, agency securities, commercial paper and mortgage-backed securities. It has logged more than $46 trillion in bond trades since its inception, the company said.