Tradeweb
Tradeweb Markets Inc. is an international financial services company that builds and operates electronic over-the-counter marketplaces for trading fixed income products, ETFs and derivatives. The company was co-founded in 1996 by Lee Olesky and Jim Toffey. Its customers include banks, asset managers, central banks, pension funds and insurance companies. It is known for having used technology to move the bond-trading market towards greater efficiency and transparency for institutions that trade fixed income and derivatives products.
History
Tradeweb was launched in 1998, creating the first multi-dealer online trading network for U.S. Treasuries. 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 Thomson Corporation for $535 million. Tradeweb established its Tokyo office in 2005, starting a partnership with CanDeal to launch Canadian debt securities trading. That 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 Thomson, 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.
In 2008, Olesky became CEO. That same year, Tradeweb acquired brokerage firm Hilliard Farber & Co. Inc. In 2009, it launched Dealerweb, an electronic interdealer platform for to-be-announced, or forward, mortgage-backed securities. 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.
In 2011, Tradeweb acquired the brokerage assets of Rafferty Capital Markets LLC 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 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 strategic partnership in electronic trading 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 February 2016, Tradeweb launched an OTC marketplace for U.S.-listed ETFs aimed at institutional investors. Later in the year, the company announced that notional volumes on its platform exceeded $12 billion. In March 2016, the company acquired CodeStreet LLC.
In October 2016, 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, 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. In January 2017, Tradeweb announced the launch of an Approved Publication Arrangement service to allow market participants to meet post-trade requirements mandated by the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II.
In March 2017, Citadel Securities became a liquidity provider on the Tradeweb institutional U.S. Treasury marketplace, expanding its role on the platform beyond IRS, CDS indices, and U.S. ETFs. Tradeweb announced the launch of all-to-all trading on its U.S. institutional credit platform in April, enabling clients to trade with more than 130 dealers. In June 2017, Tradeweb became the first offshore trading platform to connect with China Foreign Exchange Trade System, serving as the main trading interface for offshore investors to access Bond Connect, allowing investors outside of China to invest in the China Interbank Bond Market for the first time. In 2017, Tradeweb also made a strategic investment in DealVector, Inc., a fixed income asset registry and communication platform.
In May 2018, Tradeweb partnered with Plato to launch eBlock, a European cash equities block trading platform. In August 2018, Tradeweb launched an RFQ platform for US equity options allowing traders to send multiple price requests to multiple liquidity providers.
Tradeweb tendered an IPO on April 3, 2019. According to Bloomberg, Tradeweb’s offering was the best-performing IPO exceeding $1 billion for 2019. Also in 2019, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced it was partnering with Tradeweb to begin trading a single security for mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In September 2019, Tradeweb and Intercontinental Exchange launched Tradeweb ICE U.S. Treasury Closing Prices, which calculates and publishes more than 900 Treasury securities prices daily, and in October Tradeweb expanded portfolio trading for corporate bonds. In 2019, Tradeweb’s average daily volume across all asset classes exceeded $815 billion.
Management
Lee Olesky is the current CEO of Tradeweb. Prior to Tradeweb, Olesky was Chief Operating Officer for Credit Suisse First Boston 's Fixed Income Americas division. While at CSFB, Olesky completed the initial business plan for introducing institutional electronic trading of U.S. securities in 1996. After launching Tradeweb in 1998 and serving as chairman, Olesky left CSFB and co-founded BrokerTec Global, a competing trading platform. Olesky rejoined Tradeweb as President in 2002 and became CEO in 2008.Billy Hult has been president of Tradeweb since 2008. He joined the firm in 2000 from Société Générale.