“Trading for Trees” incentive program to plant 100,000 trees in 2020

MarketAxess Holdings Inc., a leading electronic trading platform operator for fixed-income securities, and the provider of market data and post-trade services for the global fixed-income markets, today announced the launch of a “Trading for Trees” incentive program and the rollout of new capabilities designed to streamline clients’ trading and sustainable investing in Green Bonds.

Green bond growth

Green bonds, also known as climate bonds, are securities issued specifically for financing environmental climate-related projects. The bonds may be issued by government-sanctioned organizations, and typically enjoy tax incentives. Green bond issuance in the U.S. is estimated to have reached approximately $50 billion in 2019, increasing more than 40% year-over-year.

Enhancing liquidity

While the class of bonds have been growing rapidly, it tends to suffer from issues including lack of liquidity and transparency. MarketAxess’ move may help address these concerns. In order to enhance clients’ ability to identify specific green bond issues and access liquidity, MarketAxess is providing several key features, including:

• Flags to easily identify Green Bonds, issuers and dealers
• Watchlist functionality for a snapshot of Green Bond market activity
• Enriched “Like Bonds” tool to identify Green Bonds with similar characteristics as non-Green Bonds
• Enhanced Smart Dealer Select functionality to identify dealers that are providing liquidity in Green Bonds

MarketAxess reported a 108% increase in green bond trading on its platform in 2019, reaching $19 billion, amid record green bond issuance, and increased investor interest in ESG investing.

“As one of the world’s largest electronic trading platforms with a global community of participants, we are ideally positioned to enhance our clients’ trading in this fast-growing Green Bond market,” said Chris Concannon, President and Chief Operating Officer at MarketAxess. “We recognize that our company can do even more to support environmentally responsible investing through the launch of our ‘Trading for Trees’ incentive program and new Green Bond trading functionality. These initiatives reflect the values and commitment of MarketAxess and its employees worldwide by combining support for our clients’ sustainable investment activities with direct action to benefit the environment.”

Over 100,000 new trees

As a further incentive to advance client’s sustainability goals, MarketAxess is partnering with the charitable organization One Tree Planted on its trading incentive program, under which 5 trees will be planted for every $1 million of Green Bond trading volume executed on the MarketAxess platform. MarketAxess expects the Trading for Trees program to plant over 100,000 trees in 2020.