FTSE Russell, Tradeweb to Develop Fixed-Income Products in Europe

Tradeweb and FTSE Russell are forming a partnership to develop fixed-income index pricing and trading products.

The partnership aims to facilitate pricing across a broader range of fixed-income securities that FTSE Russell will administer as benchmarks.

This expands the firms’ existing partnership on benchmark pricing for U.K. gilts and European government bonds.

Closing prices will amalgamate trading activity from Tradeweb’s electronic platform to better align with actual trading levels and intraday pricing. These prices can be used for functions including trade-at-close transactions and derivatives contracts.

Over time, FTSE Russell will “explore” incorporating Tradeweb pricing into its fixed-income indexes, starting with the FTSE World Government Bond index.

Tradeweb will add to the trading functionality of FTSE Russell’s benchmarks through its request-for-quote, automated intelligent execution tool and portfolio trading services.

More Reliable Prices

 “Tradeweb’s collaboration with FTSE Russell will provide clients with verified benchmarks they can use as reliable closing prices for their end-of-day trading strategies and other purposes,” Lisa Schirf, global head of data and analytics at Tradeweb, said.

“The Tradeweb-FTSE closing prices will create a foundation across global fixed-income markets for consistent end-of-day and intraday prices and is another way we are investing in the electronification of the markets,” she added.

Scott Harman, head of fixed-income indexes at FTSE Russell, said: “With our comprehensive suite of sophisticated fixed income indices and a growing need for innovative pricing solutions from our clients, our deeper collaboration with Tradeweb will enable us to bring to market greater tractability and tradability of our indices.”

The partnership adds to an active few months for Tradeweb. In August, ETF Stream revealed the firm introduced notional-based trading for global ETFs via its RFQ platform, enabling investors to submit ETF orders via the platform based on a defined cash value.