Fixed income
This year, the top themes emerging from
the ATF buy-side debates in the Nordic and
DACH regions in fixed income were how to
find liquidity, which trading venues are best,
how to make the most of TCA and how to
prepare for MiFID II.
Due to reduced liquidity in fixed income, the
buy-side spends more time searching for
liquidity. Some counterparties on the sell-side
have changed their models to reduce risk, but
they haven’t always passed on the cost saving
to the buy-side.
In addition, the Swedish buy-side is concerned
about reduced levels of issuance, while the
Danish buy-side is worried about posting
collateral for OTC derivatives. Overall, not all
buy-siders are convinced that electronification
of the market is the best answer, particularly
given the costs of connectivity and the new
higher transparency environment. During the
ATF Nordic debate in March, it was re-iterated,
as so many times before, that the buy-side
would need some kind of aggregation system
for pre-trade information.
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