NEW YORK – BondDesk, the premier provider of retail fixed income trading technology and execution services, today announced a partnership with data automation provider Trade West Systems, a division of MarketAxess Technologies Inc., that will enable BondDesk clients to seamlessly source liquidity from third party platforms that compete with the BondDesk ATS, the leading venue for retail bond execution.

The solution builds on BondDesk’s longstanding practice of aggregating liquidity from multiple dealer sources, providing participants with a consolidated view of available liquidity in the retail fixed income market. Through this relationship, BondDesk will be providing its clients and their financial advisors the tools and technology necessary to provide the best possible service to their retail fixed income customers.

“Since its earliest days, the mission of BondDesk has been to bring the best possible markets to the financial advisor community by reducing fragmentation and increasing transparency across the retail fixed income market,” said BondDesk CEO Kim Bang. “As the pioneer in fixed income liquidity aggregation, the BondDesk ATS made it possible for financial advisors to source bonds electronically from multiple liquidity pools. Now we will be taking liquidity aggregation to the next level by opening our service to our competitors’ ATS destinations.  By in effect creating a retail supermarket for bonds, ATS aggregation will provide our clients the widest possible range of fixed income offerings and liquidity.”

The BondDesk aggregation solution, powered by Trade West Systems, is available to the dealer community effective immediately.  The current solution enables traders to view multiple markets through a single portal, enabling them to efficiently monitor and assess market pricing from alternative liquidity sources.

In early 2012, BondDesk plans to release the BondDesk TrueMarkets™ Aggregator, an enhanced version of the solution that will remove so-called “phantom liquidity,” or bids or offers for identical bonds on multiple liquidity platforms. BondDesk TrueMarkets uses a proprietary algorithm that searches for and eliminates duplicative liquidity, providing scrubbed aggregated markets appropriate for direct access by retail investors and/or their financial advisors.  These aggregated markets will then be incorporated into the full suite of BondDesk wealth management solutions – including order management, price transparency, compliance, and STP solutions.

 “We’re pleased to be able to support BondDesk’s efforts to bring greater transparency and less fragmentation to the retail fixed income market by providing sophisticated connectivity solutions,” said Joe Grochan, Head of Trade West Systems. “Our LiquidityBridge® Aggregator technology is the leading source for fixed income connectivity adapters and includes real-time market depth and alerting capabilities, giving BondDesk clients access to the broadest possible market and pricing from the most accurate data. We believe this solution goes a long way toward creating sounder markets, and more efficient execution for the end user investor.”

Since 1997, BondDesk has been the leader in aggregating live and executable offerings from premier fixed income dealers, consolidating feeds from over 200 dealers within its ATS. With links to a network of over 2,000 additional broker-dealers and more than 125,000 investment advisors, the BondDesk ATS is the retail fixed income industry’s leading electronic trade execution destination.  On a typical day, the BondDesk ATS posts more than 100,000 live and executable offerings and handles over 20,000 transactions with a value of more than $1 billion.

The LiquidityBridge® Aggregator automates the flow of financial security prices, orders and trades between electronic trading platforms and other systems. This robust solution helps financial firms to increase profits and enhance efficiencies in trade operations by providing a reliable straight through process for inventory distribution, order flow, and trade capture.  LiquidityBridge has standard adapters and capabilities for a variety of markets, including fixed income, futures, and foreign exchange.

About BondDesk

BondDesk Group LLC is the nation’s largest retail bond trading venue, providing enterprise-wide fixed income solutions to many of the top broker-dealers in North America. The BondDesk Alternative Trading System (ATS), run by BondDesk Trading LLC, connects broker-dealers through a centralized marketplace by offering a diverse pool of liquidity for odd-lot fixed income securities in multiple asset classes. The BondDesk ATS executes over 20,000 transactions per day by providing 2,000 broker-dealers access to 100,000 live and executable offerings from over 200 premier fixed income dealers. In addition, BondDesk Group is a leading provider of innovative fixed income wealth management solutions, advisor workstations, and fixed income analytical tools and applications.

BondDesk Trading LLC is a member FINRA, SIPC, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of BondDesk Group LLC.  Trade West Systems is not affiliated with BondDesk Group or any of its affiliates.

To learn more about BondDesk, visit www.bonddeskgroup.com.

About Trade West Systems
Trade West Systems (TWS) provides technology solutions that automate the delivery of securities prices and trade data to and from electronic trading platforms and other systems. TWS has been recognized by its clients as an innovator and market leader in time-to-market, reliability and customer service. Since its inception in 1999, TWS has maintained a philosophy of client-driven growth, building innovative yet practical products that meet the needs of clients.  The development team consists exclusively of highly-trained software engineers who understand the financial markets.  Trade West Systems is a division of MarketAxess Technologies, Inc. 

For more information, please visit www.tradewestsystems.com.

For more information, please contact:

Jed Hamilton
Intermarket Communications
+1 212 754 5479
jhamilton@intermarket.com

Emily Ahearn
Intermarket Communications
+1 212 909 4781
eahearn@intermarket.com