US exchange group Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has combined its fixed income trading platforms under a new business known as ICE Bonds.
The new division brings together ICE BondPoint, TMC Bonds and ICE Credit Trade under singlular management, alongside continuous and end-of-day pricing and analytics provided by ICE Data Services. ICE Bonds will offer clients various anonymous and disclosed trading methods, including click-to-trade, request for quote (RFQ), and portfolio auctions.
Marshall Nicholson has joined ICE from technology-driven broker-dealer Millennium Advisors to lead ICE Bonds as president. Nicholson was formerly managing director and president of BondPoint, which ICE acquired from Virtu Financial for $400 million in 2017. The head of TMC Bonds, Tom Vales, will report to Nicholson as COO of ICE Bonds.
“By combining ICE’s existing execution platforms and leveraging the extensive pricing and analytics offered by ICE Data Services, we will offer customers unprecedented access to liquidity, trading protocols and choice for executing their trades,” Nicholson commented.
“This new structure allows us to both optimise efficiencies and provide customers with better solutions to meet their needs. I’m excited to join forces with Tom Vales and the rest of the ICE team as we work with our many customers to make ICE Bonds the premier trade execution provider to the fixed income community.”
ICE has made efforts in recent years to bolster its fixed income trading business through the acquisitions of BondPoint and TMC Bonds, and stated in August that it was planing to combine the businesses under a single entity. ICE also revealed that there had been an increased demand for access to BondPoint with volumes up 33% so far this year.
“ICE has a long and exemplary track record of using advanced technology and innovation to bring more transparency and efficiency to opaque markets,” said ICE’s president Ben Jackson. “As fixed income markets continue to evolve, bringing our execution platforms under a single structure and leadership team allows us to focus our efforts and provide our customers with a wide array of tools to accurately value bonds, find inventory, efficiently trade and manage risk.”