NYSE Euronext (NYX) has said that it is creating a pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF) for corporate bonds.
According to the company, this new platform will be open to all regulated institutions authorized to operate in Europe and seeking to trade, among professionals, fixed and floating-rate bonds denominated in euros and issued by non-sovereign issuers.
The corporate bond trading platform will only accept firm orders with no minimum amount and will process orders chronologically based on the time they are recorded in the order book. It will be designed to ensure complete transparency, with an order book giving participants firm orders and prices. Post-market information will also be made public, said NYX.
Working closely with French market authority Autorite des Marches Financiers, the market surveillance team of NYSE Euronext European cash markets based in Paris will ensure that transactions are executed in full compliance with regulations.
Dominique Cerutti, deputy CEO of NYSE Euronext, said: “NYSE Euronext is the first stock exchange in Europe to respond to the needs expressed by the Cassiopeia Committee, and does so by capitalizing on the efficiency of our business model and expertise in developing a secondary market for bonds. This initiative is at the heart of our strategy and illustrates our commitment to making Paris the European benchmark for trading in euro-denominated corporate bonds.”
Clearing of securities traded on the platform will be handled by LCH.Clearnet, with links to the major International Central Security Depositories (ICSD) and European national Central Security Depositories (CSD) for settlement and delivery.