Online fixed income exchange Thomson TradeWeb has acquired LeverTrade, a provider of Web-based fixed income management systems for the retail marketplace. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
LeverTrade was formed in August 2005 when IT consultancy LeverPoint acquired a major interest in Global Trade Technologies and formed the unit.
The firm provides bond trading software to medium to large-sized bond trading firms in the US. Through LeverTrade's retail fixed-income marketplace, financial advisors and retail representatives from firms search commingled inventory from over 30 broker-dealers and generate orders that flow to their internal trading desks.
Thomson says the acquisition willl enable it to enter the retail fixed income market.
Jim Toffey, president of equities, fixed income and retail wealth for Thomson Financial, adds: "Acquiring LeverTrade, a company with proven retail fixed-income trading technology, coupled with TradeWeb's existing dealer relationships and Thomson Financial's presence in the retail wealth market, allows us to build out our strategy to be the one-stop destination for all electronic fixed-income trading."
Thomson says the LeverTrade unit will be re-branded TradeWeb Retail. Thomson says the service will be offered to retail brokerage firms and investment advisors as a low-cost retail bond trading platform that will include a suite of compliance/best execution tools, as well as decision support and portfolio management functionality.
TradeWeb Retail will also be offered to buy-side investment managers needing fully-disclosed access to a large pool of retail bonds with "Request for Quote" trade functionality.
In addition, TradeWeb Retail will be integrated with Thomson Financial's back-office system, Beta, as well as its retail wealth front-end desktop Thomson One.