Electronic trading platform Tradeweb Markets saw strong growth in credit, equities and money markets continuing in September with monthly trading volumes up more than 15% year-on-year (yoy) in all three asset classes.

For the third quarter, Tradeweb captured a quarterly record Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) market share in US high-grade and US high-yield bonds, while quarterly trading volume records were set in repurchase agreements (repos) and China bonds. Total September trading volume reached US$18.5 trillion, with an average daily volume (ADV) of US$870.5 billion, a decrease of 0.5% yoy.

“Tradeweb’s strong performance in September was broad-based, spanning multiple asset classes and fuelled in part by increased adoption across trading protocols,” says Lee Olesky,  Tradeweb’s CEO. “One example of that horizontal expansion was credit, where we saw greater interest and adoption in electronic portfolio trading, anonymous A2A [all-to-all] trading, and automated execution.”

With regard to rates, US Treasuries ADV was up 1.9% yoy to US$90 billion, and European government bond daily volumes were up 6.8% yoy to US$27.1 billion. Trading activity in US Treasury bills and bonds remained robust, and global government bond issuances remained elevated, supporting secondary market trading.

Daily volumes for mortgages were down 0.5% yoy to US$196.8 billion. Low mortgage rates continued to drive new home sales and refinancing activity continued to drive origination, furthering trends from this past summer. Trading conditions, which mirrored those of last September when the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates, saw daily volumes for rate derivatives falling 17.8% yoy to US$239 billion. However, market share gains helped partially offset continued low volatility, as longer-tenor swaps (greater than 1 year) remained more resilient than short-tenor swaps.

In the credit space,  for corporate bonds, US credit ADV was up 33% yoy to US$4.4 billion, and European credit was up 22.1% yoy to US$1.6 billion. Continued growth in portfolio trading and anonymous trading protocols helped drive the TRACE high-yield market share to a record 5.3% (2.6% fully electronic) and the TRACE high-grade market share to 17.6% (8.2% fully electronic). European credit volumes were strong, as automated trading volumes increased via AiEX and new clients continued to embrace portfolio trading.

For credit derivatives, daily volumes were up 22.4% yoy to US$26.5 billion. Increased market volatility and market share gains, as well as semi-annual rolling activity, helped boost activity to its highest levels outside of the first quarter.

In the equities space,  daily volumes for US exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were up 55.5% yoy to US$5.3 billion, and European ETFs were down 12.4% yoy to US$1.7 billion. Equity market volatility and continued new client adoption contributed to growth across Tradeweb’s US ETF business.

In money markets, daily volumes for repos rose 19.8% yoy to US$255.8 billion. Global repo activity set a new record, exceeding an average daily volume of US$250 billion, buoyed by the addition of new dealers and participation in bilateral repo remaining strong.