Citi and Bank of America team up to build a new independent data and execution platform

By Pavithra R

Citi has announced joining hands with Bank of America to build a new industry-led independent data and execution platform for fixed income markets.

The venture plans to develop a next-generation trading, data and analytics platform for structured credit and underlying collateral markets. The contemplated multi-dealer platform will initially focus on CLOs and syndicated loans, with plans to expand into other asset classes.

The initial drive towards the building of the platform came from the combined mission to address some of the biggest challenges in both CLO and Syndicated Loan markets, for both dealers and buy-side clients including, efficiency, liquidity, and cost of execution. Citi is backing this effort through its Spread Products Investment Technologies (SPRINT) group, within the Citi Markets FinTech Investments program.

“With the acceleration of electronification in the fixed income market, this collaborative effort will help lead the change. The platform, which is currently in testing phase and is expected to launch later this year will build out a more accessible, user-friendly marketplace for third party data and analytics and will combine the trading and data consumption in these markets onto a single platform with seamless user experience,” said Brian Bejile, Head of Loan Portfolio Trading and E-Trading for Loans and CLOs at Citi.

The banks are also focused on modernizing technology development and speed to market for new products and protocols. The agile, low code methodology used to build the initial 2 protocols for CLO BWICS and loan matching aims to shorten development lead time relative to traditional models.

“The aim is to create an independent, multi-dealer platform for the CLO and loan market. Not only will the platform help to increase operational efficiencies and transparency, we believe this is going to change how the industry currently trades in these markets and eventually lead to greater liquidity and market participation,” said David Trepanier, Head of Structured Products, Global Credit at Bank of America.