Banks buy into TradeWeb as shift to electronic broking continues

Nine major banks have invested a total of $180 million in Thomson TradeWeb, as part of a deal that will see the Connecticut-based online fixed-income and derivatives marketplace expand into new areas.

TradeWeb's chief executive, Jim Toffey, said the new venture was "a natural step forward in the evolution of the online financial marketplace, taking us closer to the time when almost all trading is electronic”.

The banks involved are Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, RBS and UBS. Their investment will buy them an unspecified minority stake in TradeWeb's established markets.

Thomson Financial will provide its AutEx equity indications of interest service and the Thomson Order Routing network to TradeWeb as part of the platform's expansion into the equity markets. In return, Thomson will become the preferred distributor of market data from TradeWeb. TradeWeb plans to exploit the growth in cross-asset-class trading strategies by bringing more asset classes onto a single platform.