MTS announced today that MTS Espaa SON is scheduled to go live in mid-May. This follows ratification and approval on Friday by the Spanish Government of its application to operate as a regulated electronic trading platform for the Spanish debt market. The Spanish General Directorate of Treasury and Public Finance and the Comisin Nacional del Mercado de Valores, the Spanish regulatory authorities, had already granted regulated market status to MTS Spain, which is known kocally as’Sistema Organizado de Negociacion’ or SON.
A total of 29 participants, of which 14 are Primary Dealers, have expressed their commitment to the platform, making it one of the largest MTS markets in terms of number of participants from the outset. The regulated market status of MTS Espaa will allow official Primary Dealers of Spain (the Creadores de Mercado) operating on the platform to comply with their obligations to the Spanish Treasury. Trades onMTS Espaa will be automatically settled via Banco de Espaa.92 Spanish government bonds (including strips), representing the whole yield curve of the country’s fixed income securities, will be listed on the platform.
“We are delighted that MTS Espaa has been granted the regulated market status by the Spanish authorities,” says Gianluca Garbi, Chief Executive Officer of MTS S.p.A. ” We are now in the position to deliver the benefits of the MTS model to the Spanish market and its official Primary Dealers. The launch of MTS Espaa will contribute to the further enlargement of the European network of MTS, where more than 200 institutions are already connected, and strengthen its role as the only truly pan-European fixed income market.”
Prior to its launch date, MTS Espaa, which is currently fully-owned by MTS S.p.A., will allocate the majority of the shares in the company to its participants.It will also finalise the rules of the market, which will be tailored to the needs of the Spanish financial community. The launch of an MTS Spanish national platform will complement the trading of Spanish benchmark bonds listed on EuroMTS. Trading activity on Spanish benchmarks has steadily increased since their introduction on the platform on October 25, 1999. Volumes (single-counted) of Spanish benchmarks on EuroMTS total €197 billion to date. Spanish bonds were introduced on the Repo Trading Facility of the MTS system on April 10 this year.