EBS BrokerTec, ICAP's electronic foreign exchange (FX) and fixed-income business arm, has had its EBS Treasury platform selected by the UK’s Municipal Bonds Agency (MBA), according to an ICAP statement.
EBS Treasury, formally known as MyTreasury, is the group’s comprehensive Liquidity management platform for the broader corporate treasury realm. The platform offers a multi-product, multi-bank, multi-currency money market platform, which caters to a wide spectrum of treasury investors. Its selection by MBA will help foster an offering of electronic inter-authority lending and borrowing capabilities in the UK.
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In particular, the EBS Treasury platform will help facilitate and Leverage direct borrowing and lending of cash between UK authorities with the aim of providing an electronic, direct trading solution. The partnership is noteworthy, namely given the depth and size of the UK lending market, which is estimated at nearly $8.25 billion.
Moreover, the replacing of seemingly draconian bilateral or manual processes such as telephone execution with EBS Treasury platform should help strengthen the symbiosis and connectivity with UK authorities, resulting in a more cohesive borrowing service. UK lending authorities are also eyeing the use of other products through EBS Treasury platform, including its Money Market Fund (MMF), term deposit, certificate of deposit and commercial paper products, greatly expanding the diversity of instruments available to them. Despite today’s announcement of the partnership however, the service is not expected to go live before Q2 2016.
According to Justin Meadows, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EBS Treasury in a recent statement on the service selection: “EBS Treasury delivers a secure, electronic solution for clients managing their treasury solutions. We’re looking forward to working on expanding this service to work with UK local authorities in order to provide them with a more comprehensive and efficient way to access funding.”
“To date, UK local authorities have relied on manual processes for borrowing and lending cash between them. While this has worked for a long time, the move to an electronic solution will improve access to capital and have a meaningful impact on the efficiency of the process for their treasury teams. We are impressed with EBS Treasury’s technology and expertise and look forward to offering its systems to all our members soon,” added Aidan Brady, CEO, MBA, in an accompanying statement.
The announcement by EBS BrokerTec is the first of this year, following its integration with standard FIX API 4.4 back in late December. The move and subsequent assimilation came after this segment of EBS experienced dynamic growth in tandem with several prevalent changes in the industry. Disclosed liquidity platforms such as EBS Direct had gained traction in recent quarters as the needs of the FX market were continually evolving, helping provide context and an impetus for the integration.
