Famously secretive market maker Citadel Securities has cast light on the equally secretive world of credit trading platforms as part of a scathing whitepaper defending the importance of non-bank liquidity providers in the fixed income space.
Referencing Q2 dealer ranking reports, which are not available to the public, Citadel Securities states that it is ranked the most successful for US Treasuries by risk executed by Tradeweb and Bloomberg. Internal data from Citadel Securities report US$23 trillion traded in US Treasuries in 2025, with an average daily volume of US$92 billion.
Dealer ranking reports also reveal that Citadel Securities has the number one hit rate for European government bonds in France and Germany by Tradeweb’s measure, and the number two hit rate in both regions by Bloomberg’s.
Both Tradeweb and Bloomberg declined to comment on the report.
Tradeweb publishes overall credit trading volumes, while Bloomberg does not.
READ MORE: Tradeweb leads US credit e-trading in June
By its own estimates, the firm holds a 14.2% market share in investment grade credit block risk transfer and traded US$406 billion in the asset class, year-to-date.
Based on this evidence, the market maker juggernaut states that concerns about the resilience of its liquidity provision have been overstated, arguing that it has a “long-standing and consistent track record of delivering dependable pricing and liquidity”.
Claims that liquidity from non-bank market makers is less resilient than incumbents have come from incumbents and the trade associations that represent them, Citadel Securities says, pointing to AFME’s response to the FCA’s engagement paper on market risk capital requirements for investment firms.
The response, published in February, argued that the FCA was “playing down” the risks to retail investors, markets and financial stability posed by systematic non-bank liquidity providers. It also stated that newer market entrants, recently expanding into fixed income markets, have not been tested through “a genuinely market-wide fixed income stress event or impact tolerance testing”.
Citadel Securities highlights four periods of volatility between 2020 and 2026 where it has been able to measure the quality and resilience of its liquidity provision: the Covid pandemic, SVB’s collapse, tariffs, and the onset of the Iran conflict this March.
Of this most recent stress point, the report observes, “We maintained industry-leading low ‘no-quote-rates’ while trading a record $1.36 trillion in a day.”
ESMA proposed that “Systemic non-bank liquidity providers should be subject to requirements aligned with those banks already comply with (where they conduct activities generating similar risks).”
Citadel Securities takes a different approach, suggesting that five metrics be used to measure liquidity resilience in all dealer-to-customer markets: non-quote rates, market share, execution cost savings, hit rates, and risk executed. Bank regulations are not suited to non-bank market makers, it argues, calling for calibration in regulation.
©Markets Media Europe 2026
