Tradeweb Markets Inc., a NASDAQ-listed operator of electronic marketplaces for rates, credit, equities and money markets, recorded a total trading volume of $25 trillion in May 2022.
This represents a 16% increase from the $21.6 trillion recorded in April and an 11% slump from the $28.2 trillion generated in March.
The trading venue operator said it set new average daily volume (ADV) records in fully electronic US High Grade credit repurchase agreements (repos) and municipal bond trading.
The operator disclosed these in the Tradeweb Markets Monthly Activity Report for May 2022, which was published on Friday.
According to Tradeweb, its ADV climbed 21.4% year-over-year (YoY) to $1.19 trillion in May 2021. This is a 9% increase from the $1.09 trillion ADV recorded in April.
More on the New Records
In the report, Tradeweb, which recorded a 13.9% YoY increase in its first-quarter earnings for 2022, noted that its fully electronic US Credit ADV surged 32.8% YoY to $4.1 billion.
On the other hand, its European credit ADV went down by 0.9% YoY to $1.7 billion. If calculated in Euro, then it went up by 9.1% YoY.
While repo ADV climbed by 13.8% YoY to $420.3 billion, US government bonds traded on Tradeweb's venue jumped 29.4% YoY to $136 billion.
In contrast, European government bonds, which also increased during the period, soared by a relatively smaller amount, which was 16.4% YoY to $36 billion.
Also, mortgage ADV dropped 19.4% YoY to $150.3 billion as declining issuance and rising yields continued to weigh on the overall market activity.
Factors Behind the Growth
In a statement, Tradeweb explained the factors that spurred the growth recorded in the aforementioned asset classes.
For the US and European credit volumes, it said that recorded growth is the result of continued client adoption of Tradeweb protocols, including requests for quote (RFQ), Tradeweb AllTrade and portfolio trading.
“Reported European volumes were impacted by a strong US dollar. In May, Tradeweb captured [a] fully electronic share of U.S. High Grade and US High Yield TRACE of 13.7% and 5.8%, respectively,” Tradeweb explained.
It added that credit derivatives ADV surged by 99.4% YoY to $16.9 billion as a result of market-wide volatility which continued to boost volumes overall.
On repo ADV in the money markets, Tradeweb explained that client adoption of its electronic trading solutions “drove record global repo activity even as elevated usage of the Federal Reserve’s reverse repo facility continued to weigh on the overall repo market.”
“Retail money markets activity remained measured in the low interest rate environment, despite its recent pickup,” it added.
For the bond market, it explained that trading in US government bonds was supported by strong client activity in institutional and wholesale markets.
The continued momentum of session-based trading and streaming protocols as well as the addition of the NASDAQ Fixed Income Business contributed to the growth seen in the US government bond ADV in May, it said.
Also, Tradeweb noted, “Global government bond trading remained strong amidst heightened rates [of] market volatility as yields continued to rise across developed markets.”
Meanwhile, in the equities market, the US exchange-traded fund (ETF) ADV increased to $7.6 billion, representing a 33.5% jump YoY.
Furthermore, European ETF ADV went up 20.6% YoY to $2.7 billion.
“Growth in global institutional client trading, up 55.0% YoY, was driven by record activity in the US and further adoption of RFQ as market volatility remained elevated,” Tradeweb added.
