Electronic bond trading options rise in Brazil

Electronic bond trading in Brazil is set to increase after MarketAxess, the operator of a fixed income trading platform, gained approval to offer trading in local currency debt instruments.

Electronic bond trading in Brazil is set to increase after MarketAxess, the operator of a fixed income trading platform, gained approval to offer trading in local currency debt instruments.

The market operator received authorisation from Brazilian regulatory authority the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários and the Central Bank of Brazil to offer electronic trading of local currency debt in January.

MarketAxess now trades government and corporate bonds denominated in local currency. Using the platform, global institutional investors can use the firm’s request for quote technology to source multiple quotes in these instruments from the broker dealers of their choice. To accompany the expansion, MarketAxess opened an office in São Paulo.

“Our clients are eager to trade in one of the world’s fastest growing debt markets,” said Sandy White, emerging markets product manager at MarketAxess. “We are currently the leading platform to offer electronic trading of Brazilian local market debt, and we are well positioned to advance electronic trading in Brazil.”

White added that in 2011, MarketAxess traded over US$9 billion in Brazilian debt.

The expansion in Brazil follows a record trading month in many instruments for MarketAxess in March, including US$36.6 billion in US high-grade volume, US$5.1 billion in Eurobonds. The firm said this was due to impending changes to fixed income market structure as a result of regulation, which will contribute to the growth in electronic trading.

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