Electronic trading venues garnered 20% of U.S. investment-grade corporate bond trading volume this year, said a Greenwich Associates report.
The volume in corporate bond trading on electronic venues is 25% higher than 2014, Greenwich said in the report, “The Continuing Corporate Bond Evolution.”
Also, based on a survey of 1,063 U.S. institutional investors active in fixed income included in the report, 71% said they believe executing orders with notional volume of more than $15 million was either difficult or extremely difficult. That’s down from 81% last year.
“While trading large blocks of corporate bonds is still no walk in the park, any easing of this burden should be seen as a step in the right direction,” said Kevin McPartland, head of market structure and technology research at Greenwich Associates, in the report.
The survey also showed that interest in “all-to-all trading platforms,” which aggregate liquidity and involve dealers as well as a broad range of investor types, increased to 43% in 2015 from 38% last year, indicating that more investors are considering anonymous trading with any market participant if the type of security, price and size are all right.
Overall, the top five dealers of U.S. investment-grade bonds based on Greenwich’s estimated market share are J.P. Morgan, at 15.3%; Citigroup, 13.4%; Bank of America, 12.5%; Goldman Sachs, 11.8; and Barclays, 11.1%.
