ICE Launches MSCI® MarketAxess Corporate Bond | Bonds & Fixed Income

Intercontinental Trade, a main world supplier of technology and information, and home to probably the most liquid markets for trading MSCI^® futures, introduced the launch of MSCI® MarketAxess Tradable Company Bond Index futures.

The futures contracts will probably be primarily based on MSCI and MarketAxess’ newly created company bond indices. These tradable indices purpose to supply a benchmark for the efficiency of the company bond market, incorporating sector and credit allocation to make sure low monitoring error to the MSCI father or mother indices and dependable replication of the credit market.

“The introduction of ICE MSCI MarketAxess Corporate Bond futures are a welcome addition to the existing suite of credit futures,” mentioned Antony Harden, Government Director, Goldman Sachs. “Timing couldn’t be better as client adoption hits an all-time high as credit futures find their way into investors toolkits.”

ICE’s 4 futures contracts offer a method for institutional traders to combine company bond hedges into their investment course of and are primarily based on the next indices: MSCI MarketAxess USD IG Tradable Company Bond Index, MSCI MarketAxess USD HY Tradable Company Bond Index, MSCI MarketAxess EUR IG Tradable Company Bond Index and MSCI MarketAxess EUR HY Tradable Company Bond Index.

The MSCI MarketAxess Tradable Company bond indices methodology makes use of MarketAxess’ Relative Liquidity Scores to determine and measure the efficiency of a choice of liquid fixed income securities from MSCI’s broader Company Bond Indices.

“ICE’s markets account for over 70% of global MSCI futures trading by volume in equity markets, and we are pleased to expand our relationship to the corporate bond futures market,” mentioned Caterina Caramaschi, Vice President, Monetary Derivatives, ICE. “The launch reflects growing investor demand for products that allow better management of corporate bond portfolios, and we thank MSCI and MarketAxess for their collaboration.”

“We are excited to be working with ICE and MarketAxess to provide investors with innovative tools designed to manage credit exposures more efficiently,” mentioned George Harrington, Managing Director, MSCI. “By leveraging MSCI’s index methodologies, MarketAxess’ unique liquidity metrics and ICE’s leading trading platform, clients can efficiently trade and achieve enhanced liquidity.”

“Credit futures are an important tool for a healthy market and our institutional clients—one that will generate more liquidity in the cash markets,” mentioned Kat Sweeney, International Head of Information and ETF Options at MarketAxess. “We are proud to have introduced these tradable indices with MSCI and are equally excited to be expanding on our data and trading relationship with ICE with the launch of these futures.”

ICE’s MSCI MarketAxess Tradable Company Bond Index Futures will be a part of ICE’s current suite of liquid futures primarily based on MSCI ACWI, MSCI EAFE, MSCI Rising Markets, MSCI ESG and MSCI Local weather indices, offering contributors across the world with a set of instruments to handle equity risk. To date in 2024, the average day by day quantity for ICE’s MSCI advanced is over 190,000 contracts, equal to an estimated $13.6 billion of notional worth. Roughly 45 million ICE MSCI futures contracts have traded year-to-date.

Supply: ICE