TP ICAP partners with nine global banks to back new bond platform

Britain's TP ICAP TCAP has partnered with nine big investment banks to create a dealer-to-client credit business, the interdealer broker said on Monday.

TP ICAP has bought Neptune Networks, a financial data company co-owned by the banks, and will combine it with Liquidnet’s electronic credit trading platform, aimed at dealing bonds and other credit products to big investors.

Unlike stock markets, which operate through fast, liquid and public global exchanges, bond markets have traditionally been more illiquid and opaque, with electronification only gathering momentum in recent years.

At the end of November 2024, 43% of total volume traded in U.S. bonds of investment grade was executed electronically, compared with just 19% in 2015, according to Coalition Greenwich data supplied by TP ICAP.

The new TP ICAP platform will seek to beat existing players by offering superior data and execution, the broker said.

Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Crédit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank, ING, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and UBS will own a 30% stake in the new business, TP ICAP said.

"As market electronification intensifies, clients are increasingly looking for solutions to combine pre-trade analytics and data with seamless execution," said Pierre Scemla, deputy head of global markets trading at Crédit Agricole CIB.