A trader works as a screen displays the trading information for BlackRock on the floor of the NYSE in New York.
NEW YORK - The world's largest asset manager BlackRock Inc and trading platform Tradeweb Markets Inc are partnering to enhance electronic bond trading, the companies said on Tuesday.
Users of BlackRock's Aladdin system - widely used across the financial industry to manage investment portfolios and risk - will have access to Tradeweb's credit platform and data through the partnership.
The move will allow investors to tap wider liquidity in markets for corporate, municipal, and emerging market bonds, the companies said.
Chris Bruner, chief product officer at Tradeweb, said that the benefits of deepening these integrations is key to the ability to improve your liquidity and capacity to trade in very volatile environments.
The partnership will give buyers and sellers access to all-to-all trading that will allow them to deal directly with each other rather than rely on market makers such as banks. The U.S. credit markets have had to navigate choppy markets this year. The value of corporate debt has fallen as interest rates rose, recession concerns deepened and bond-market liquidity worsened.
Market functioning continued to appear healthy last month, although it was strained in the investment-grade part of the market.
In recent years, credit markets have grown increasingly electronic, but there are still significant opportunities to accelerate this trend through expanding pools of liquidity, said Kamya Somasundaram, managing director and general manager at BlackRock.