The inclusion of US Treasuries represents a major extension of BondVision’s services and significantly expands the range of securities available for trading on Europe’s premier multi-product, multi-currency dealer-to-client market. The decision to list US Treasuries reflects strong demand from investors and serves to extend BondVision’s services beyond Europe.
BondVision will initially list 'on-the-run' and other benchmark US Treasuries. In addition, US Treasury bills, index-linked bonds and ‘principal strips’ are expected to be added to the portfolio in line with the Company’s services in respect of European government securities.
Gianluca Garbi, CEO of BondVision S.p.A, commented: “We are delighted at the prospect of offering, alongside our dealer partners, US Treasuries as an aspect of our ongoing commitment to provide clients with the broadest access to the pan-European fixed-income market and beyond. Clients who wish to trade in US Treasuries will now be able to avail themselves of the functionality and efficiency that is synonymous with BondVision.”
BondVision dealers which have already expressed their support for US Treasury trading include: ABN Amro, Barclays, Caboto, DrKW, Lehman Brothers, RBS Financial Markets, UBM and UBS. Other BondVision dealers are expected to follow suit shortly with no additional membership fees required from existing dealers. As with all BondVision products, investors trade free of charge.
Harry Harrison, Managing Director and Head of US Dollar Trading at Barclay’s Capital, commented: "BondVision's expansion into US Treasuries will provide Barclays Capital's clients with additional access to our valuable BARX pricing. This development extends BondVision's established efficiency and price discovery to an additional segment of the global bond market and provides additional flexible distribution for BARX."
John Tiktinsky, Head of US Treasury Trading for RBS Financial Markets, commented: “As a recent participant on BondVision for European Government bonds, RBS is pleased to expand the product range we offer to include US Treasuries. The BondVision platform will enable us to offer our European customers additional means of accessing the liquidity of our US primary dealership, RBS Greenwich Capital, in their local time zone.”
Paul Humphrey, Global Head of eBusiness at ABN Amro, commented: “The inclusion of US Treasuries in BondVision’s offering is excellent news for the European investment community which will translate this into a plus in terms of efficiency, liquidity and price discovery.”
BondVision is unique in that it offers investors access to the acknowledged liquidity of MTS, the leading interdealer electronic market for European fixed income. BondVision has witnessed marked growth in 2005 with turnover up 40% on the year and volumes reaching a monthly record of €46.5 billion.
The BondVision market continues to attract high quality business from institutional investors, which account for 82% of overall turnover, with the average transaction size currently in excess of €9 million. The client base encompasses more than 250 members, representing a 43% increase compared with 2004, and is expected to expand further in response to BondVision’s receipt of regulatory approval to service Swiss clients. Meanwhile, benefiting from a tiered fee structure, dealers have enjoyed a reduction in fees of up to 40%.
Ranked by Italian clients as the premier execution tool once again in 2005, BondVision also became the system of choice for French clients this year. During the year, BondVision expanded its portfolio to include additional non-government bonds with a total of more than 1,000 bonds now eligible for trading.
