BondbloX Bond Exchange (BBX) has revealed plans to make its unified platform for tracking and trading bonds available to individual investors globally.
The BondbloX platform will allow individual investors to buy, track and trade bonds through the integrated app, essentially providing digital access to the platform via a smartphone.
The platform uses an exchange model for all-to-all order matching which differs from the over-the-counter model that exists with phone dealers servicing individual investors presently.
According to the firm, this will allow individual investors to access transparent inter-bank bond pricing with no hidden spreads.
BondbloX offers a range of USD and SGD denominated corporate and sovereign bonds, with plans to offer trading of US treasuries and US corporate bonds at a later date.
“We want to simplify access to bonds, giving a new audience the opportunity to diversify their portfolios and lock in these higher yields,” said Rahul Banerjee, chief executive and co-founder of BondbloX.
“We’re excited to be able to reach individual investors not only in Asia, but across the world, and democratise access to this exciting asset class through fractional investing.”
Backed by Citi and MassMutual Ventures, BondbloX has been active within the institutional market since 2016. The exchange is also regulated as a Recognised Market Operator (RMO) by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
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Last month, Citi was revealed as the first digital custodian participant of BBX for the institutional market. The move allows certain Citi clients to become BBX participant and begin trading both fractionalised and full-sized bonds almost immediately.
Over the past year, several institutions have expanded their offerings to cater to retail investors. In August, Virtu entered a strategic alliance with InvestorLink to offer retail investors improved access to primary markets.
As part of the partnership, Virtu’s network of retail broker-dealers can access primary markets and secondary market liquidity via an integration with InvestorLink’s primary market order management and artificial intelligence based matching platform.
Elsewhere, LSEG launched a new retail trading service with Hudson River Trading in April, designed to support European retail brokers in meeting best execution obligations.