MarketAxess Moves to Support Clients’ Sustainable Investment Strategies
January 28 2020 - 9:00AM
MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: MKTX), the operator of a leading
electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, and the
provider of market data and post-trade services for the global
fixed-income markets, today announced the launch of a “Trading for
Trees” incentive program and the rollout of new capabilities
designed to streamline clients’ trading and sustainable investing
in Green Bonds.
The Green Bond initiatives follow a 108% year-over-year increase
in global Green Bond trading activity on MarketAxess to over $19
billion in 2019. This growth is amid record Green Bond issuance and
continued focus on sustainable investing in bonds deemed consistent
with applicable Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
guidelines. TRACE-reported trade volume in bonds financing
environmentally friendly activities rose to over $57 billion in
2019, up from nearly $30 billion in 2018. With a 15% share of
trading in these issues, MarketAxess ranks as the largest Green
Bond marketplace in the U.S.
“As one of the world’s largest electronic trading platforms with
a global community of participants, we are ideally positioned to
enhance our clients’ trading in this fast-growing Green Bond
market,” said Chris Concannon, President and Chief Operating
Officer at MarketAxess. “We recognize that our company can do even
more to support environmentally responsible investing through the
launch of our ‘Trading for Trees’ incentive program and new Green
Bond trading functionality. These initiatives reflect the values
and commitment of MarketAxess and its employees worldwide by
combining support for our clients’ sustainable investment
activities with direct action to benefit the environment.”
MarketAxess is partnering with the charitable organization One
Tree Planted on its trading incentive program. Through the “Trading
for Trees” program, 5 trees will be planted for every $1 million of
Green Bond trading volume executed on the MarketAxess platform,
further encouraging clients and dealers to enhance their ESG
investment goals. Under the program, institutional investor and
dealer clients will get credit for planting trees in the Amazon,
Australia and other critical regions while fulfilling their ESG
investment strategies. Based on global historical trading activity,
MarketAxess expects the Trading for Trees program to plant over
100,000 trees in 2020. The program launched on January 1,
2020.
To make it easier for clients to identify specific bond issues
and access liquidity to meet their ESG strategies, MarketAxess has
designed new Green Bond-related trading functionality:
- Flags to easily identify Green Bonds, issuers and dealers
- Watchlist functionality for a snapshot of Green Bond market
activity
- Enriched “Like Bonds” tool to identify Green Bonds with similar
characteristics as non-Green Bonds
- Enhanced Smart Dealer Select functionality to identify dealers
that are providing liquidity in Green Bonds
Ashley Schulten, Head of Responsible Investing, Global Fixed
Income at BlackRock said, “BlackRock has been a long-standing
advocate for both enhancing efficiency in the fixed-income trading
ecosystem and in the development of the Green Bond market. As an
active Green Bond investor, ease in identifying securities and
sourcing qualifying issues is helpful in managing our growing
sustainability focused funds and adds further support to this
nascent but growing asset class.”
“We expect this comprehensive market ecosystem with dealers,
brokers, and market participants will create a deep and prevailing
market,” said Russell Investments’ Global Head of Trading, Jason
Lenzo. “As market participants and stewards of our
environment, we also believe it’s critical to support such
sustainability initiatives.”
Bonnie Wongtrakool, Global Head of ESG Investments and Portfolio
Manager at Western Asset Management added, “As an active
fixed-income manager, we value liquidity and transparency in
pricing. We view the development of these functionalities as
positive, as they will not only facilitate our portfolio management
activities, but also support the ongoing growth in the sustainable
bond market."
For further information related MarketAxess’ sustainability
efforts, please visit our website:
https://www.marketaxess.com/about-us/sustainability.
About MarketAxessMarketAxess operates a
leading, institutional electronic trading platform delivering
expanded liquidity opportunities, improved execution quality and
significant cost savings across global fixed-income markets. A
global network of over 1,700 firms, including the world’s leading
asset managers and institutional broker-dealers, leverages
MarketAxess’ patented trading technology to efficiently trade
bonds. MarketAxess’ award-winning Open Trading™ marketplace is
regarded as the preferred all-to-all trading solution in the global
credit markets, creating a unique liquidity pool for a broad range
of credit market participants. Drawing on its deep data and
analytical resources, MarketAxess provides automated trading
solutions, market data products and a range of pre- and post-trade
services.
MarketAxess is headquartered in New York and has offices in
London, Amsterdam, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Salt Lake
City, San Francisco, São Paulo, Hong Kong and Singapore. For more
information, please visit www.marketaxess.com.
Media Relations Contacts: |
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New York: |
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London: |
Kyle White |
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Toby West |
MarketAxess Holdings Inc. |
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MarketAxess Holdings Inc. |
+1 212 813 6355 |
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+44 (0)20 7709 3270 |
kwhite@marketaxess.com |
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twest@marketaxess.com |
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