Tradeweb Launches Equity Derivatives Platform, Supporting Regulatory Efforts

Tradeweb said it launched an institutional marketplace for equity derivatives, according to today’s announcement.

The new dealer-to-customer platform was introduced in response to demand from market participants and should support efforts by world’s regulators to increase efficiency and transparency of derivatives market, said the company in its release.

Tradeweb will support electronic trade execution of equity options on all European single stocks, as well as the major indices. Nine of the largest equity derivatives dealers have already committed support to the new marketplace, including: Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Societe Generale and RBS.

The new platform will leverage Tradeweb’s extensive institutional network of over 50 major global dealers and over 2,000 buy side customers to improve liquidity and access to the equity derivatives markets. Clients will be able to place up to five dealers in real-time competition for listed, flex and OTC/bilaterally settled options based on the request-for-quote functionality that Tradeweb first introduced to the industry in 1998 for U.S. Treasuries. Additionally, Tradeweb is providing links with relevant clearinghouses to ensure a significantly enhanced level of efficiency to both dealers and their clients.

This initiative coincides with a push from the G15 group of leading dealers to improve the efficiency of the equity derivatives market, following similar efforts for interest-rate and credit default swaps over the past few years.

"Electronic trading of institutional-sized equity derivatives is even more appropriate at a time when global regulation is set to demand greater transparency and efficiencies," stated Lee Olesky, CEO of Tradeweb. "We're delighted with the initial response from buy-side institutions and look forward to rapidly connecting with this growing trading community in an efficient global network."

Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio