Tradeweb Markets Inc., a leading, global operator of electronic marketplaces for rates, credit, equities and money markets, announced it has introduced electronic portfolio trading for European government bonds, spanning UK Gilts, EUR and single currency notes. Tradeweb was also the first platform to launch portfolio trading for corporate bonds in 2019. Last year, the firm saw USD 698 billion in global portfolio trading notional volume across 9,134 transactions.
James Dale, Co-Head of International Developed Markets at Tradeweb, said: “The expansion of our portfolio trading functionality to the European Government Bond market is a significant milestone in increasing flexibility and efficiency for our institutional clients, and reflects Tradeweb’s track record of relentless innovation. As a truly global multi-asset platform, we are uniquely positioned to develop solutions across asset classes, and remain steadfast in our commitment to responding to the evolving needs of the market.”
Nicola Danese, Co-Head of International Developed Markets at Tradeweb, said: “As institutional clients continue to embrace the benefits of portfolio trading, there is huge potential for its use cases to expand beyond cash credit and across the fixed income spectrum. Traders have already transcended market silos, and portfolio trading perfectly exemplifies how technology can help to further break down barriers and harmonize execution workflows.”
Tradeweb’s portfolio trading solution enables institutional traders to package bonds into a single basket, negotiate a portfolio level price with one or multiple liquidity providers, and execute the entire basket with a single counterparty. Portfolio trades can include bonds with varying liquidity profiles, and allow dealers to manage risk holistically at the portfolio level. Traders can easily replicate a benchmark or customize portfolios to match specific strategies, while mitigating operational risk and achieving Best Execution. Executing multiple bonds simultaneously with a single dealer significantly reduces information leakage and market slippage. Furthermore, Tradeweb clients are able to track execution costs at the portfolio level, helping them make better-informed trading decisions.
The first electronic portfolio trading transaction for European government bonds was completed on Tradeweb between L&G and Citi as the liquidity provider.
Kelly Moohan, Fixed Income Trader – Rates, Asset Management at L&G, said: “Our experienced high touch traders continue to work closely with our E-Trading team in order to innovate and drive efficiency with solutions, such as portfolio trading. The ability to execute a basket of European Government Bonds as a single package further enhances our capabilities on this front. We continue to drive and support new technological developments that help our clients rebalance portfolios and tailor risk transfers better, faster, and in different market environments.”
Todd Coletto, Head of Rates Business Development for UK & Europe at Citi, said: “We are excited to be the first dealer to support the launch of portfolio trading for European Government bonds. The expansion of the functionality from Credit to Rates bonds is an exciting development for the dealer community, as it allows us to provide our government bond clients with competitive and transparent pricing for instruments of varying liquidity profiles.”
A record USD 212.6 billion in average daily volume was executed on Tradeweb’s European Government Bond marketplace in 2024, up 45.6% year over year. With access to liquidity from 47 leading market makers, institutional investors can trade bonds from more than 20 European countries in seven currencies (EUR, GBP, DKK, SEK, NOK, CHF, HUF). In addition to portfolio trading, available trading protocols include RFQ (Request-for-Quote), which Tradeweb was first to introduce for electronic trading of U.S. Treasuries in 1998, RFM (Request-for-Market) and CTT (Click-to-Trade).
Source: Tradeweb
