David Rutter, founder of LiquidityEdge and R3, is looking to tackle some of the biggest challenges in the corporate bond market with a new trading platform, LedgerEdge.
LedgerEdge intends to apply a combination of blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, and secure enclave computing to improve liquidity by enabling discovery of prices and trades while preventing data leakage.
The corporate bond market lags behind other asset classes in adoption of digital technology; barely 30% of the $59bn in daily trades is currently executed electronically.
Says Rutter: “The secondary market for corporate bonds is growing and is ripe for an evolution, but existing platforms are not fit for purpose. Data is monetised by platforms and it is leaked across fragmented, opaque markets, decreasing execution quality. Working with the industry, we will build a platform that solves the challenges of locating and promoting liquidity and data ownership once and for all.”
LedgerEdge will follow the same collaborative approach taken by R3, in creating an ecosystem of market participants to work together in delivering a working platform.
Rutter has gathered a team of seasoned professionals to spur development, including David Nicol (IBM/R3) as CEO, Ian Chicken (ICAP/BrokerTec) COO and Bob Bose (Santander/NYSE Euronext) as CTO. Rutter will maintain his position as CEO of R3.
LedgerEdge will be licensed as an MTF in the UK with suitable licenses in the US.