MarketAxess Launches Open Trading® for Emerging Market Local Currency Bonds

October 03, 2023 - MarketAxess has enhanced its award-winning Emerging Markets (EM) trading product with the launch of Open Trading for local currency bonds. The first tranche of supported local currencies are Polish Złoty (PLN), Czech Koruna (CZK), Hungarian Forint (HUF) and South African Rand (ZAR).

The launch of Open Trading for EM local bonds represents a key addition to MarketAxess’ end-to-end global EM offering. It connects local onshore dealers with international buyside clients, significantly expanding the available liquidity pool. Clients and dealers can trade on an all-to-all basis.

In the first half of 2023, EM local currency bonds were over 40% of MarketAxess' $360 billion in global EM volumes.

Christophe Roupie, Head of EMEA and APAC at MarketAxess, said: “As a global leader in Emerging Markets debt trading, expanding Open Trading across our 28 local markets is something our clients around the world have been asking us for. Expanding Open Trading in these four new local markets is only the first step, and we hope to expand the model further to more local currencies in the first half of next year.”

Launched in 2012, MarketAxess’ Open Trading is the leading all-to-all trading environment for corporate bonds. It drives meaningful price improvement for clients by creating a global, diversified liquidity pool where clients, dealers and alternative liquidity providers can interact.