MTS Finland has launched a Buy-Back functionality, to allow the Finnish State Treasury to buy back Finnish government bonds by posting bids and lifting offers displayed by the Primary Dealers of Finland through a specific market segment on the system. Replicating the Buy-Back functionality on MTS Belgium, this extends the trading activity of the platform to include operations in the primary market.
From June 2002, seven Market Makers, namely Dresdner Bank AG, Fortis Bank NV, Commerzbank AG, JP Morgan Securities Ltd., Socit Gnrale SA, Crdit Agricole Indosuez (Paris) and Morgan Stanley, and three Market Takers, Goldman Sachs International, Credit Commercial de France (HSBC) and KBC Bank NV, have joined MTS Finland, demonstrating the strong interest in the Finnish market. With the 10 official Primary Dealers of Finland, a total of 20 institutions now participate on the segment.
Turnover activity has soared on MTS Finland since its launch in April 2002. Average daily volumes on MTS Finland have steadily increased from €55 million in April to €110 million in July to current levels of €275 million, with a record daily volume of €530 million reached on October 8. This is further complemented by volumes on Finnish government benchmarks on EuroMTS which average €50 million a day.
Satu Huber, Director of Finance of the Finnish State Treasury said: “The liquidity of the Finnish debt is undoubtedly enhanced by the MTS system and its low-cost use for market participants.”
MTS says tThe debt market of Finland will additionally benefit from the introduction of repurchase agreements on Finnish government bonds on EuroMTS before year-end.
MTS Finland is a segment of MTS Associated Markets, established as a result of the arrangement between the respective Debt Agencies and Primary Dealers of Finland and Belgium. This partnership permits Finland to benefit from the use of the electronic trading platform of MTS Belgium whilst allowing MTS Finland to be governed independently by a market committee composed of Finnish Primary Dealers and the Finnish State Treasury.
MTS Belgium was incorporated under Belgian law and operates under the supervision of the Banking and Finance Commission and of the Securities Regulation Fund. Shares in the company are held by the Primary Dealers in Belgian securities, by MTS S.p.A. and by the Kingdom of Belgium.
In addition to 12 lines of Treasury certificates with an outstanding amount of about €27 billion, a total of 16 Belgian securities with an outstanding amount of €192 billion and 6 Finnish benchmark securities with an outstanding total amount of about €35 billion are currently traded on MTSAM, representing all fixed rate OLO lines and RFGBs with a remaining life to maturity of over 1.25 years.
The MTS Group includes EuroMTS, EuroCredit MTS, MTS Amsterdam, MTS Belgium, MTS Espaa, MTS France, MTS Finland, MTS German Market, MTS Ireland, MTS Italy, MTS Portugal and MTS Japan. The MTS Group also includes BondVision, the Internet-based multi-dealer-to-client platform powered by MTS.
MTS manages three different trading platforms: Telematico Cash; Telematico Repo Trading Facility (RTF); and Telematico Basis Trading Facility (BTF).