TradeWeb, the fixed-income trading platform, has added UK government bonds to its electronic trading network. The first trade was accepted just 27 seconds after the market opened, and a total of 50 trades, worth 263 million, were executed on the first day’s trading yesterday.
TradeWeb claims an online UK Gilts auction trading system is a significant development for the UK gilts market, because it brings it in line with other European bond markets. Initially, eight GEMMs are offering liquidity, with more scheduled to join shortly.
“This is an interesting development for trading in the UK Gilt markets,” says Lee Olesky, President of TradeWeb. “It is the first time that UK Gilts have ever been offered electronically on a multi-dealer auction-based platform & and the response has been phenomenal. It is a further step in providing our dealers and their clients with a full range of European government bonds on a single, global trading network.”
“Having Gilts on TradeWeb allows fund managers to make better decisions – anything which increases liquidity and transparency is great for our clients,” says Peter Allwright, Fixed-Income Fund Manager at Royal London Asset Management. Chris Skelton, Senior Dealer at Legal and General Investment Management added that “gilts are a very welcome addition to electronic trading – volumes will grow in line with other European markets & we are very excited.”
UK Gilts are part of the European government bond product offering already available on TradeWeb. The platform now supports all of the leading European government bond markets. Danish and Swedish government bonds were added to the platform in October last year.