Industry Financial services Headquarters United States of America General counsel Douglas Friedman CTO Jay Spencer | Website www.tradeweb.com CFO Robert Warshaw Founded 1998 | |
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Key people Lee Olesky, CEO and Founder; Billy Hult, President; Parent organization Thomson Reuters Corporation Subsidiaries BondDesk Group LLC, Tradeweb Idb Markets Inc Profiles | ||
Tradeweb Markets LLC (Tradeweb) is an international financial services company that builds and operates electronic over-the-counter (OTC) marketplaces for companies that trade fixed income products and derivatives. The company was founded in 1996 by Lee Olesky and Jim Toffey and now serves a variety of institutions, a network that includes the largest banks, asset managers, central banks, pension funds, and insurance companies. Since its founding, Tradeweb has grown into a global company that operates across multiple currencies and in numerous countries. Its focus is on applying technology to drive greater efficiency, transparency, and overall performance for institutions that trade fixed income and derivatives products.
Contents
History
Tradeweb launched its first multi-dealer online marketplace for U.S. Treasuries in 1998.
In 2000, the firm opened its London office and launched marketplaces for trading European government bonds and agencies.
The firm was privately held until 2004, when it was acquired by The Thomson Corporation for $535 million.
Tradeweb established its Tokyo office in 2005. Thus began a partnership with CanDeal to launch Canadian Debt Securities trading. In the same year, the firm grew by introducing marketplaces for interest rate swaps, credit default swap indices, and repo.
In 2006, Tradeweb Retail was established as the firm entered the retail fixed income marketplace through the acquisition of Lever-Trade, a provider of web-based fixed income management systems for the retail marketplace.
In 2007, Thomson Financial, a unit of The Thomson Corporation, announced its plans to expand electronic trading by creating a strategic partnership with nine other global dealers through Tradeweb valuing the company at $1.55 billion.
Following its acquisition by The Thomson Corporation, the firm entered the inter-dealer broker space. In 2008, it acquired Hilliard Farber & Co. Inc., the voice brokerage company, which was known for its reputation and industry expertise. In 2009, it launched Dealerweb, an electronic interdealer platform for to-be-announced, or forward, mortgage-backed securities (TBA-MBS) with an emphasis on being highly liquid.
In 2010, Tradeweb facilitated the first fully electronic, dealer-to-customer interest rate swap to be processed by a central clearing house in the U.S. That same year, the firm relocated its U.S. headquarters to New York City, where it is now, and established the U.S. Center for Brokerage Technology and Operations in Jersey City.
In 2011, Tradeweb acquired the brokerage assets of Rafferty Capital Markets LLC (RaffCap) and the municipal bond broking business of J.J. Kenny Drake.
In 2013, Tradeweb, through Dealerweb's European and interdealer trading division, launched an interdealer iTraxx credit default swap index platform. In addition, Tradeweb's institutional business completed the first electronic buy-side pre-trade credit check for swaps trading in the U.S. The firm also secured CFTC temporary approval of two wholly owned swap execution facilities (SEFs) TW SEF and DW SEF. Live SEF trading on the platforms began on October 2, 2013.
In November 2013, Tradeweb acquired BondDesk Group, a bond trading venue in the U.S. for advisors and middle market investors. Tradeweb integrated the businesses, technology, services and support of Tradeweb Retail and BondDesk to form Tradeweb Direct.
In May 2014, Tradeweb and BlackRock announced a strategeic partnership that created electronic trading solutions in rates and derivatives markets for BlackRock's Aladdin clients.
In June 2014, Tradeweb launched active U.S. Treasury bond trading on the Dealerweb platform, supporting trading of the most liquid on-the-run Treasury bonds with participation from dealers and several electronic market making firms.
In October 2014, the company announced that investors can trade company debt for American companies on its web platform.
In March 2015, Tradeweb introduced trade data reports and axes for European ETFs. Later that year, it announced that axes on its platform for European government bonds, European credit, covered bonds, supranationals, agencies, and sovereigns (SAS) allowed supported improved buy-side discovery of liquidity on its marketplace.
On May 14, 2015, Tradeweb announced the completion of an industry-first packaged mortgage backed security (MBS) and U.S. Dollar swap transaction on a swap execution facility (SEF) before the expiration of no-action relief by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that required the mandatory swap leg of these types of packages to trade on SEFs or designated contract markets (DCM) after May 15, 2015.
In September 2015, the company announced that its newly launched marketplace for trading interest rate swaps (IRS) saw its first Yen-swap trade under Japan's new mandatory trading rules, which went live that month.
In February 2016, as institutional demand of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continued to grow, Tradeweb launched an OTC marketplace for U.S.-listed ETFs aimed at institutional investors to complement its leading marketplace for European ETFs. Later in the year, the company announced that notional volumes on its platform exceeded $12 billion.
In March 2016, the company acquired CodeStreet LLC, a leader in data-driven trade identification and workflow management software development, with the aim of enhancing corporate bond trading and delivering innovative tools to improve pre- and post-trade data solutions to improve quality of execution with greater information protection.
In October, Tradeweb along with FTSE Russell was named a provider of Gilt and Treasury Bill end-of-day reference pricing by the U.K. Treasury. The same month, the firm became one of four electronic trading platforms to launch the Electronic Debt Markets Association Europe (EDMA Europe), which was formed to develop and promote collective member views on regulatory developments affecting electronic fixed income trading venues in Europe.
In December 2016, the firm announced record volume of $7.9 trillion across its platforms during November, making it the most active month of trading since the credit crisis.
Offices
Tradeweb's headquarters are in New York City. It also has offices in Garden City, New York; Jersey City, New Jersey; Jupiter and Boca Raton, Florida; and Los Angeles. Its European presence is in London, while its Asian presence is in Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Operations
Tradeweb Institutional, Dealerweb, and Tradeweb Direct are the company's three divisions.
Tradeweb Institutional supports the client-to-dealer business. It is the largest of company's three market divisions.
Dealerweb is the inter-dealer division that provides a range of voice, electronic, and hybrid markets for major global banks.
Tradeweb Direct provides fixed income trading solutions for financial advisors, the institutional buy side, traders, and broker dealers.