Refinitiv partners with Nairobi Stock Exchange to enhance market transparency
Refinitiv today announced a partnership with the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) to bolster Fixed Income price discovery and raise market transparency in Kenya.
As part of the partnership, the NSE will introduce Refinitiv Fixed Income Callouts in Kenya, an automated workflow that facilitates negotiations and agreements of secondary Fixed Income bond trading among banks, brokerage firms, and real-time integration with the Central Securities Depository (CSD).
The primary FI market has been steadily growing in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as governments explore better access to financing. According to the 2020 Refinitiv investment banking review, SSA debt issuance totalled US$19 billion in 2020. With the increased accessibility to technology, electronic trading has emerged as a significant channel to the growth of a secondary FI market across the continent.
The deployment of Refinitiv’s solution will enable the NSE to benefit from an automated Over the Counter (OTC) FI workflow that is integrated in real time with both, the Securities Exchange and the CSD in Kenya.
Nadim Najjar, Managing Director, Middle East and Africa, Refinitiv, said,
“We are proud to partner with the NSE and the local regulators to foster transparency, latency and liquidity. Refinitiv Fixed Income Callouts will allow market participants to benefit from real-time price discovery across bonds and bills. The deployment will also facilitate collaboration among Kenyan banks, brokerage firms, and the CSD.”
“The Kenyan financial markets have seen significant growth over the past few years. This partnership reinforces our commitment to enable the local regulators and financial community with advanced technologies and workflows to achieve efficiency and growth. The adoption of Refinitiv Fixed Income Callouts will create an effective market infrastructure, build greater long-term confidence amongst investors, and ensure strong governance processes,” he added.