European bond trading network MTS is to provide Internet access to its money market facility (MMF) for European repo trading.
MTS says it is providing a secure Internet link to the market after a number of financial institutions expressed a strong interest in being able to trade in European repo products via the Web.
The move follows on a quarter of technical and market innovations for repo traders by MTS, commencing with the launch of the new MMF Repo market in September 2005. A new Request For Quote negotiation tool is now responsible for daily transactions of more than €3 billion on the platform says MTS, with growth showing no sign of slowing.
At the same time, a rapid expansion of Central Counterparty (CCP) membership in Italy to a current total of 28 members has seen volumes cleared via the CCP service now account for more than 50% of all repo market transactions.
The MTS experience chimes with the the latest figures from the International Capital Market Association on repo trading trends in Europe. The annual Icma survey shows electronic trading of repo continued to rise in 2005, with inter-dealer automated trading systems taking a 24.7% share of reported business, of which about half is anonymous trading settled with central clearing counterparties (CCPs).