Daily ETF Watch: New Platform Lists ETFs

Tradeweb Markets has rolled out an over-the-counter platform for trading ETFs electronically that is targeted at institutional investors. The platform is designed to accommodate and provide liquidity for large trades and, according to the press release, can do so for all U.S.-listed ETFs and European-listed ETFs.

Tradeweb already has a European OTC platform that is responsible for 45% of Europe’s electronic OTC trading in ETFs.

The new platform has 11 different liquidity providers operating on it, including KCG, whose head of ETF sales, Chris Hempstead, noted in the press release, “The platform represents a novel approach to improving price discovery as well as an innovative way to execute larger-size trades, while reducing the risk of materially impacting pricing.”

Further, Tradeweb Managing Director and Head of Europe and Asia Business Enrico Bruni said that institutional clients could expect “a new level of transparency, flexibility and efficiency” when trading U.S.-listed ETFs on the platform.

Among some of the features offered by the new platform, according to the press release, are pretrade price transparency from the platform’s liquidity providers, NBBO exchange pricing, full integration and workflow automation with users’ systems and electronic recordkeeping for auditing purposes.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected].