MarketAxess joins Investortools’ Dealer Network
MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX) today announced that it will expand its municipal bond integration with the Investortools’ platform and display its offerings within the Investortools Dealer Network (IDN). This partnership represents the next phase of integration within the FIX® connectivity and will combine the MarketAxess trading capabilities and unique CUSIP offerings with Investortools’ suite of analytics and trading tools for a comprehensive view of the fixed income market.
Investortools is a software firm that specializes in solutions for fixed income portfolio management, trading, compliance, credit analysis, and benchmark risk analysis. In 2016, MarketAxess and Investortools announced a partnership highlighting the integration of the MarketAxess Municipal Bond Platform within the Investortools Perform® and Smart™ portfolio management systems, using the FIX® protocol. Now, Investortools customers will have access to the MarketAxess offerings from within the IDN.
The IDN is an industry first that gives asset managers direct click-to-bid and click-to-trade access to liquidity throughout Investortools’ Perform® software for a straight-through-processing experience. It is the only platform of its kind to allow users the ability to lift, bid, and negotiate trades without needing to pivot away from the system.
“Order routing integrations with MarketAxess have been a valuable part of our clients’ trading ecosystem for seven years, and expanding upon that integration to bring MarketAxess’ offerings into the IDN is a major step forward in shaping the future of electronic fixed income trading, especially for munis,” said James Morris, Senior Vice President at Investortools. “Clients can now incorporate muni offerings on MarketAxess into their IDN toolkit, which allows them to automate searching the secondary market, pre-allocation, optimization and then stages those candidate bonds for review and execution. This gives our clients the ability to measure SMA portfolio construction in days instead of months while adding alpha through an STP user experience.”
“The evolution of the municipal bond marketplace, especially in the past seven years, exemplifies the need for digitalization and automation,” says Daniel Kelly, Head of Municipal Securities at MarketAxess. “Our partnership with Investortools is a logical next step in our relationship as we move towards integrating our muni capabilities within the IDN. We look forward to continuing this partnership and building even more tools to enhance both platforms.”
MarketAxess is one of the fastest growing electronic marketplaces for muni bonds. In the first quarter of 2023, MarketAxess accounted for a 6.4% market share of muni bonds—up from 4.3% the year prior—and representing $447 million in average daily volumes.