Saxo Bank Transforms Fixed Income Trading With the Launch of the First Truly Digital Bond Trading Solution

PR65683

COPENHAGEN, Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

      A strong combination of technology and access to up to 40 of the largest

liquidity providers will significantly improve efficiency and reduce costs for

clients

    Saxo Bank, the online trading and investment specialist, announces today

that it is transforming fixed income trading with the launch of the first truly

digital trading solution for corporate and government bonds. As part of the

launch, Saxo Bank will offer its clients access to trading opportunities in

over 5,000 investment grade and high yield corporate and government bonds from

all over the world and in 20 different currencies. The solution will be rolled

out in October on SaxoTraderGO, the bank's multi-asset trading platform.

    Saxo Bank will combine its technological prowess and its relationship with

40 of the largest liquidity providers in the bond markets to offer both retail

and institutional clients more transparent, cheaper and more efficient access

to fixed income trading opportunities. The move is set to revolutionise the way

investors trade bonds - a process which currently involves a manual "request

for quote" from a very small number of banks, and in some instances a single

bank. The current process is inefficient as it does not explore the depth of

the liquidity and range of prices available in the marketplace.

    Saxo Bank's digital bond trading is connecting each client with the entire

global bond market, in a direct, competitive, transparent, and efficient

manner. Each bond order is directed to an optimized dealer auction which

comprises up to 40 of largest bond liquidity providers. Thanks to technology,

most trades are done within seconds, but, most importantly, clients will

experience huge cost savings due to the competitive nature of the multi dealer

environment. Saxo Bank's ability to offer its clients a fully digital trading

solution which has high scalability will allow it to offer, on average, a price

improvement of 30 basis points for corporate bonds and 5-10 basis points for

government bonds, according to the bank's observations.

    Large institutional investors have had access to electronic trading in

liquid government and corporate bonds for a while, however, electronic bond

trading has to date not been available to a large part of the investor base.

Saxo Bank's aim is to change that and democratise access to efficient bond

trading.

    Commenting on the launch Kim Fournais CEO and co-founder of Saxo Bank, said:

    "It is hard to imagine a market which is more ripe for disruption than the

bond market. Watching a bond trader trade over the phone, at a time when the

internet has touched almost every area of financial markets, not to mention our

lives, is a clear call for disruption. Investors need to ask themselves if they

want to continue to trade based on an indicative price from a single bank or if

they want to get the best price available from more than 40 global bonds

providers, including some of the largest global banks."

    "Enabling our clients to trade bonds much more efficiently is an extension

of our mission and history of democratizing investment and trading and leveling

the playing field between institutions and retail investors when it comes to

accessing financial markets"

    Simon Fasdal, Head of Fixed Income Trading at Saxo Bank, commented:

    "I am proud that the next step in Saxo Bank's history of democratizing

trading and investment is to truly digitize bond trading. Many providers who

have attempted to address the issue of electronic bond trading have failed

because they took the wrong approach by trying to copy equity style trading

into a fragmented market and ignoring issues with liquidity and indicative

prices. Others have stuck to a manual work stream, despite a digital frontend,

and not really taken the step to a full digital value chain. We have engineered

a front end that will present clients with a trading experience which is

similar to that which they are accustomed to in equity trading, offering speed

of execution and transparency, and the technology to cope with the much more

complex nature of fragmented bond markets in a simple manner."

    "Client demand and regulatory pressure makes transparency absolutely key

and with our new offering we will charge a commission, offering full

transparency to clients, in contrast to the industry standard of a spread based

system, which is not always a transparent way of pricing clients."

    About Saxo Bank Group

    Saxo Bank Group (Saxo) [http://www.saxobank.com?cmpid=press-release-FP ] is

a leading multi-asset trading and investment specialist, offering a complete

set of trading and investment technologies, tools and strategies.

    For almost 25 years, Saxo's mission has been to enable individuals and

institutions by facilitating their access to professional trading and investing

through technology and expertise.

    As a fully licensed and regulated bank, Saxo enables its private clients to

trade multiple asset classes across global financial markets from one single

margin account and across multiple devices. Additionally, Saxo provides

institutional clients such as banks and brokers with multi-asset execution,

prime brokerage services and trading technology.

    Saxo's award winning trading platforms

[http://www.saxobank.com/platform?cmpid=press-release-platform ] are available

in more than 20 languages and form the technology backbone of more than 100

financial institutions worldwide.

    Founded in 1992 [http://www.saxobank.com/about/?cmpid=press-release-about ]

and headquartered in Copenhagen, Saxo employs more than 1500 people in

financial centres around the world including London, Singapore, Paris, Zurich,

Dubai and Tokyo.

   SOURCE: Saxo Bank