NEWS UPDATE
FIXED INCOME
Citi and Bank of America join forces to build fixed income trading platform
Multi-dealer trading platform from Citi and Bank of America will initially support CLOs and syndicated loans as both banks look to address challenges in fixed income markets .
US investment banking rivals
Citi and Bank of America have joined forces to develop and build a new data and trading platform for fixed income markets .
Both banks have confirmed plans to develop a next generation multi-dealer trading and data and analytics platform for structured credit and underlying collateral markets . It is currently in the testing phase and is expected to launch later this year .
The platform will initially support collateral loan obligations ( CLOs ) and syndicated loans as both institutions hope to address challenges in both markets for broker-dealers and buy-side clients around liquidity and trading costs .
With a focus on modern technology development and speeding up time to market for new products , Citi and Bank of America said they have deployed a low code methodology to build the first protocols for CLO BWICS ( bid wanted in competition ) and loan matching .
“ Not only will the platform help to increase operational efficiencies and transparency , we believe this is going to change how the industry currently trades in these markets and eventually lead to greater liquidity and market participation ,” said David Trepanier , head of structured products for global credit at Bank of America .
Citi is backing the project through its Spread Product Investment Technologies ( SPRINT ) group as part of the bank ’ s FinTech investments initiative .
Brian Bejile , head of loan portfolio trading and e-trading for loans and CLOs at Citi , commented that with the acceleration of fixed income markets , the collaboration with Bank of America will help lead the change .
“[ The platform ] will build out a more accessible , user-friendly marketplace for third party data and analytics and will combine the trading and data consumption in these markets onto a single platform with seamless user experience ,” he added .
10 // TheTRADE // Summer 2021