Barnes-on-Bonds

Pacific Western and Banc of California merge, sell US$1.9bn in bonds, munis and treasuries

Banc of California has today completed its merger with PacWest Bancorp, with both firms shedding billions of dollars’ worth of agency commercial mortgage-backed securities,...

A great vintage for bid-ask spreads

This year’s bid-ask spreads in US investment grade are half those of last year, prompting much celebration on the buy side, but clearly having...

Evidence of trading efficiency from electronification

This week we look at the growth of electronic trading in the US fixed income markets, and the potential it holds to reduce time...

Shielding from exploding issuance

US fixed income markets saw issuance in Q1 2024 hit US$2.5 trillion according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), an increase...

Do Europe’s credit trading costs invert the pattern for US debt trades?

An analysis of average bid-ask spreads in corporate bond markets across the European and US markets suggests that median bid ask spreads responses are...

Emerging markets’ uneasy calm

Bid-ask spreads for fixed income trading in emerging markets have stabilised after a tumultuous year in 2022, according to TraX data, triggered by the...

China Focus: The secondary effect of defaults

The bid-ask spread for bonds in China’ property market has expanded by 300% this year, although even more so for Evergrande which increased by...

Is US investment grade market-making starting to fray?

In US credit, mean bid/ask spreads are skewing upwards from the median, indicating that a greater proportion of larger spreads are in some cases...

Credit Indices – Closing the Fixed Income Evolutionary Gap

Fixed income markets are evolving at pace, with smarter electronic trading protocols, more sophisticated, automated investment strategies and a greater availability of useful data. In...