Thomson TradeWeb Opens Electronic Trading in Asia
Tokyo/London (March 6, 2007) - Thomson TradeWeb, a unit of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC), today announced that TradeWeb, the leading online, multi-dealer-to-client marketplace for Fixed Income and Derivatives in North America and Europe, will now offer Asia-based customers access to its pre-eminent trading platform during Asian trading hours.
US Treasuries is the first market on TradeWeb available throughout the entire global trading day, with further expansion including European Government Bonds to be made available shortly. Additional products will follow in response to dealer and buy-side customer demand. Users around the world currently trade a total of fourteen different markets on TradeWeb with an average daily trading volume in excess of $200 billion.
Asia-based customers, such as Asset Managers and Central Banks, have been able to use TradeWeb during North American and European hours since 2005. Now available during Asian trading hours, the platform will be initially supported by eleven leading dealers: Banc of America Securities; Bear Stearns; Citigroup; Deutsche Bank; RBS Greenwich Capital; HSBC; JPMorgan; Lehman Brothers; Merrill Lynch; Morgan Stanley and UBS Investment Bank.
A completely new data centre in Tokyo has been built in preparation for the rollout of US Treasury trading and the availability of Market Data. In addition to supporting this initial expansion, it will further underpin TradeWeb's future growth in the Asia-Pacific region. TradeWeb also has Asian offices in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The benefits available to Asia-based traders centre around TradeWeb's long-established efficiencies. Launched in 1998, starting with US Treasuries, TradeWeb has achieved its leadership position across the globe by offering unparalleled pre-trade price discovery, a request-for-quote model offering customers live executable prices from the leading dealers, and a full Straight-Through Processing solution to reduce operational risk.
Lee Olesky, President of Thomson TradeWeb, said, "TradeWeb has long been synonymous with access to US Treasury bond liquidity and we are very pleased to be offering access to this dealer liquidity in Asian hours. The widening of the trading hours on TradeWeb is an important benefit to our customers who have a presence in Asia, and is a major step in unifying electronic trading in the bond markets on a global scale."
He added, "Expanding TradeWeb's offering to our customers in Asia is a further demonstration of our commitment to providing access to liquidity in the world's bond and derivative markets. We look forward to making further product introductions very soon."
Michael Chen, Head of Dealing, Shin Kong Life Insurance Co. Ltd. commented, "As a diversified financial services company, our need for fixed-income trading is sizeable and varied. By expanding their trading hours, TradeWeb's user-friendly platform and deep liquidity can become a valuable part of our asset management and hedging activity."
Masaru Kunitsugu, Co-Head of Rates Trading at JPMorgan Securities in Japan commented, "We continue to explore ways to support our clients who are looking for better execution and operational efficiency. TradeWeb's availability in Asia provides a means for our institutional clients to continue to access the liquidity we already provide during Asian hours, in addition to providing them with a seamless channel across all time zones."
About Thomson TradeWeb
TradeWeb is the leading online, multi-dealer-to-client marketplace for Fixed Income and Derivatives with over 11 million trades executed and total volume surpassing $160 trillion since its inception in 1998. TradeWeb links the trading desks of 35 of the world's leading fixed-income dealers with more than 2,200 buy-side institutions in North America, Europe and Asia. Over $200 billion in trading volume gets executed over TradeWeb on average each day. The business is also the leading electronic "straight-through processing" network for the fixed-income markets, providing dealers and buy-side institutions with paperless trade allocations and confirmations on its fully-integrated TradeXpress network. TradeWeb's STP network also includes AccountNet, the leading derivatives counterparty management tool and data warehouse for standing settlement instructions and OTC derivatives legal documentation. Thomson TradeWeb operates within the Thomson Financial group of businesses.
About Thomson Corporation
The Thomson Corporation (www.thomson.com) is a global leader in providing essential electronic workflow solutions to business and professional customers. With operational headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Thomson provides value-added information, software tools and applications to professionals in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, scientific research and healthcare. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).