KCG is expanding its electronic fixed-income trading system and offering by enlisting Charles River technology. The goal – grow its institutional business and grab market share in the nascent market’s electronic space.
KCG will now link its fixed-income trading venue BondPoint to Charles River’s Investment Management Solution. The net result will be the broker grabbing more institutional order flow from clients using the Charles River IMS.
BondPoint, a registered ATS, offers traders end-to-end workflow automation, access to a deep and diverse pool of liquidity across multiple fixed-income asset classes, and low transaction costs which provide clients with efficient bond market access, transparent price discovery, and superior trade execution, according to KCG. BondPoint links more than 400 financial services firms to approximately 200,000 live and executable bids and offers each day.
Charles River IMS is an end-to-end solution that automates front- and middle-office investment management functions across asset classes on a single platform.
“Integrating BondPoint’s electronic marketplace in the Charles River IMS supports the growing trend among buyside firms for trading smaller lots of US fixed income instruments,” said Karl Kutschke, senior director-product management at Charles River. “Having direct access to BondPoint’s fixed income liquidity providers from the Charles River trading blotter will help clients improve their investment performance and trade execution.”
Greg Tusar, head of KCG client execution services, noted that as the fixed income marketplace continues to migrate to a more displayed market, KCG is focused on developing solutions that will connect fixed income clients with liquidity in a centralized, efficient, and automated way.
KCG said that it expects that Charles River will be bringing clients live on BondPoint throughout 2015.
