MarketAxess Holdings Inc. declared that it will expand its municipal bond connection with Investortools and show its offerings in the Investortools Dealer Network (IDN).
This partnership combines MarketAxess’ trading abilities and CUSIP offerings with Investortools’ analytical and trading features to give a comprehensive view of the fixed-income market. This team-up signifies the next step in the integration of FIX® connectivity.
Investortools is a software company focused on helping investors better manage:
Fixed-income portfolios, trade, ensure compliance, review credit, and assess potential risks.
In 2016, Investortools and MarketAxess, a platform for municipal bonds, teamed up. The new partnership allows Investortools customers to gain access to the MarketAxess offerings from Investortools’ portfolio management systems, using the FIX protocol.
The IDN is a revolutionary new service from Investortools that lets asset managers use the Perform® software to buy and sell with ease. With this system, users can effortlessly make trades without needing to leave the platform. It’s the first of its kind to offer a streamlined transaction process.
Senior Vice President at Investortools, James Morris, said:
Order routing integrations with MarketAxess have been a valuable part of our clients’ trading ecosystem for seven years, and expanding upon that integration to bring MarketAxess’ offerings into the IDN is a major step forward in shaping the future of electronic fixed income trading, especially for munis. Clients can now incorporate muni offerings on MarketAxess into their IDN toolkit, which allows them to automate searching the secondary market, pre-allocation, optimization and then stages those candidate bonds for review and execution. This gives our clients the ability to measure SMA portfolio construction in days instead of months while adding alpha through an STP user experience.
Head of Municipal Securities at MarketAxess, Daniel Kelly, said:
The evolution of the municipal bond marketplace, especially in the past seven years, exemplifies the need for digitalization and automation. Our partnership with Investortools is a logical next step in our relationship as we move towards integrating our muni capabilities within the IDN. We look forward to continuing this partnership and building even more tools to enhance both platforms.
MarketAxess is increasing in popularity for muni bonds. During the first quarter of 2023, it had a 6.4% market share, up from 4.3% the year before. That translates to an average daily volume of $447 million.
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