ICAP, an interdealer broker, has announced that the Finnish State Treasury has selected the BrokerTec fixed-income platform for the secondary market trading of Finnish government bonds. Finland is the sixth European country to open its wholesale government bond market to competitive platforms, following Austria, Belgium, France, Holland and Ireland.
Reportedly, BrokerTec is a scalable platform; widely installed across Europe and the US and already used by banks to trade European and US government bonds and repos. The BrokerTec platform is supported by technology, which is regularly improved to ensure the levels of reliability and customer satisfaction. BrokerTec’s straight through processing (STP) application automatically processes trades, allowing for improved execution and settlement, while simultaneously reducing costs and inefficiencies associated with traditional paper-based methods.
John Edwards, director of fixed income sales at BrokerTec, said: “We are delighted to be able to extend the services of the BrokerTec platform for Finnish Government Bonds, reflecting the progress that BrokerTec has made in establishing itself as a robust, liquid and respected dealing venue for government bond traders.”
Teppo Koivisto, director of finance, Finnish state treasury, said: “With the opening of the Finnish interdealer markets to competing electronic trading platforms, Finland shows commitment to a European harmonization and fair terms of competition, with a goal to foster our bonds liquidity and trading infrastructure.”
