A Greenwich Associates study shows 40% of institutional bond investors trade at least some of their bonds through online systems, which include TradeWeb, Merrill Lynch’s IDeal and LMMS and Bloomberg’s Bond Trader. That’s up from 35% in 2000 and about 20% in 1999.
In terms of volume, 23% of bond transactions are done electronically, up from 16% last year, Greenwich found. There may be a new spike in the growth rate: 70% of bond investors who use online tools for research or other purposes say they are considering online trading, while half of those who aren’t going online for any purposes say they are pondering electronic trading.
