Press Release

Charles River Survey Ranks Market & Operational Challenges for Fixed Income Traders

June 25, 2015

Boston – Charles River, an enterprise-wide front and middle office investment management solution provider, today announced survey results of market and operational challenges facing Fixed Income trading desks. Conducted during a recent webinar with over 100 global Buy-Side participants, the survey shows that discovering and accessing liquidity remains the top market challenge for fixed income traders by a two-to-one ratio. Respondents cited the transition to electronic trading as the greatest operational challenge.

“Sell-side bond inventory has declined nearly 80% since the 2008 market crash, forcing fixed income traders to look seriously at new electronic platforms, and learn how to take advantage of these opportunities,” said Karl Kutschke, Senior Director-Product Management, Charles River. “At the same time, brokers are looking for more effective ways to interact with the Buy-Side.”

Survey findings for key market challenges facing fixed income traders include:

• 53% – cited discovering and accessing liquidity as the greatest challenge
• 36% – feel challenged by adapting to regulatory changes
• 21% – are concerned with ensuring best execution for trades

From an operational standpoint, survey responses were as follows:

• 41% – believe transitioning to fixed income e-trading is the greatest challenge
• 36% – are concerned with obtaining accurate and timely pricing data
• 18% – cited minimizing trading costs and slippage
• 5% – are challenged by retaining and accessing past trade history

The Charles River Investment Management Solution (Charles River IMS) provides Buy-Side firms with decision-support tools and links directly with brokers for seamless access to fixed income liquidity and pricing information in the Charles River trading blotter.

“While traders have new opportunities to access liquidity and pricing information, they don’t have time to explore each and every platform before making a trade decision, nor are they looking for yet another system to take up space on the desktop,” said Kutschke. “Charles River IMS offers fixed income traders the liquidity and information they need to trade, when they need it.”

About Charles River
Charles River provides an end-to-end solution to automate front and middle office investment management functions across asset classes on a single platform. Delivered as a hosted service, the solution improves data quality and investment professional productivity, controls risk and lowers technology costs. Charles River serves more than 350 investment firms in over 40 countries in the institutional asset and fund management, private wealth, alternative investments, insurance, banking, and pension markets.