Barclays Capital and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney (SSMB) have joined MTS Ireland. This takes the total number of market-makers in Irish government bonds on EuroMTS to nine. Barclays Capital and SSMB, which has also become an official Primary Dealer of Ireland, join Commerzbank AG and the six other Primary Dealers: AIB Capital Markets, ABN Amro, Credit Agricole Indosuez, Davy Stockbrokers, Deutsche Bank and NCB Stockbrokers.
EuroMTSsays liquidity in the Irish debt market is further boosted by the listing on the trading platform of the country’s two benchmark bonds: the 4.25 percents of 2007 and the 5 per cent of 2013. 31 institutions, 13 in a market-making capacity, participate on this segment. “We are very pleased with the increased turnover of our bonds on MTS and with the interest shown by the broad range of market participants in trading the bonds,” says Oliver Whelan, Deputy Director of The National Treasury Management Agency. Repo transactions on Irish bonds will be introduced on the MTS system in October. “Classic” repo will be made available through bilateral trading.
Daily Turnover activity of Irish bonds on the MTS system have peaked at €195 million, with monthly record volumes in September of €1.45 billion, a growth of over 50% since its launch in July 2002.