ICAP, an interdealer broker, announced that primary dealers have confirmed their intention to quote in the wholesale Austrian Government Bond market on ICAP’s electronic fixed-income platform BrokerTec from 1 July. The Austrian Federal Financing Agency welcomes this development in their market. This follows the selection of the BrokerTec platform by the Belgian, Dutch and French Treasuries as platforms that fulfill their criteria for the wholesale trading of euro government bonds, opening these markets to competing electronic platforms for the first time.
“Governments across Europe are recognising the benefits of opening their markets to multiple electronic platforms and we are pleased that the dealers are driving this initiative,” says John Edwards, director of Fixed Income Sales, ICAP Electronic Broking.
“The Austrian Federal Financing Agency encourages competition in the bond markets as a means to further enhance market efficiency. The primary dealers have expressed a desire for the acceptance of BrokerTec as electronic trading platform for our government debt and we support their interests,” says Martha Oberndorfer, managing director, Austrian Federal Financing Agency.
BrokerTec is a highly robust and scalable platform; widely installed across Europe and already used by banks to trade European government bonds and repos. The BrokerTec platform is supported by state-of-the-art technology, which is regularly enhanced to ensure the highest levels of reliability and customer satisfaction. BrokerTec’s straight through processing (STP) application automatically processes trades, allowing for enhanced execution and settlement, while simultaneously reducing costs and inefficiencies associated with traditional paper-based methods.