BUSINESS WIRE  – New York – Liquidnet, the global institutional trading network, today marked the first anniversary of its fixed income dark pool. Since launching in September 2015, Liquidnet’s community of fixed income asset managers has grown to 215 active firms with over 490 users who have executed a total of $3.4 billion of corporate bond trades via the Liquidnet platform efficiently, anonymously, and with minimal market impact.

For the past year, Liquidnet has continued to provide its Members with technology and innovation to access liquidity, make smarter execution decisions, and improve overall trading performance. This summer, the firm introduced Fixed Income Targeted Invitations in the US and Europe enabling Members to seek latent liquidity across its network of participants. In just over two months, Targeted Invitations in the US have already led to a 41% increase in matches, and a 33% increase in trades at Liquidnet.

“The liquidity problems in the corporate bond market are not going away, and the buy side has increasingly become aware of the need for them to take control of their ability to directly source liquidity,” said Constantinos Antoniades, Head of Liquidnet Fixed Income. “Technology like Targeted Invitations, which gives traders the capability to access liquidity that was previously hidden, is a game changer for this space as evidenced by the increases our dark pool has seen in engagement, match rate and trades.”

The unique combination of dark matching with new features like Targets Invitations is one of the reasons Liquidnet Fixed Income has continued to attract asset management firms onto its platform, with an active user base up over 250% since launch. This growth has been fueled by Members’ ability to trade in institutional size, with an average execution of $2.4 million.¹ Liquidnet’s dark protocols which safeguard information protection and anonymity, together with connectivity to all major order management systems, provide the backbone for the development of an institutional venue for corporate bond trading.

“Our goal is to free traders from the burden of constantly seeking liquidity and to provide them with the tools they need to capture alpha and enhance performance,” said Seth Merrin, Liquidnet Founder and CEO. “The fixed income market—which until now, has been a very manual marketplace—is ripe for innovation, and what we’ve built in these last twelve months is only just the beginning.”