May, 01 2015
GFI Launches Electronic Trading Platform for Odd Lot Corporate Bonds in the U.S. Fri, 01 May 2015 08:00:44

GFI’s new offering, available via CreditMatch, serves the dealer-to-dealer market for corporate bonds with a notional value of less than $1 million

NEW YORK, May 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — GFI Group (“GFI”) (OTC US: GFIG), a leading intermediary and provider of trading technologies and support services to the global OTC and listed markets, announced today the launch of an electronic trading platform for Odd Lot Corporate Bonds in the U.S.

Effective immediately, this service consists of an end of day odd lot matching session that provides instant executions via CreditMatch, GFI’s electronic trading system for corporate bonds and derivatives. GFI anticipates extending this into a fully executable Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) during the third quarter of 2015. Trades will be electronically posted to FINRA’s Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) and cleared by Pershing.

“We are providing a much needed source of Odd Lot liquidity to the dealer community,” said Colin Heffron, Chief Executive Officer, GFI Group. “As a market leader in electronic execution across bonds and derivatives, we are delighted to offer clients an opportunity to trade in this growing sector of the corporate bond market.”

Odd lot transactions represent almost 90% of the number of trades in the interdealer corporate bond market and almost 20% of the notional amount traded, according to FINRA*.

CreditMatch offers specialist execution services across a breadth of credit products, providing a fully integrated workflow — from price discovery, pre-trade credit checks and trade execution — to trade capture and straight-through processing (STP). GFI has electronic connections to a number of major clearing houses and swap data repositories (SDRs) to provide a fully electronic workflow, allowing participants to be confident of liquidity and superior execution with the assurance that they are fully compliant with SEC and FINRA requirements.

About GFI Group Inc.

GFI is a leading intermediary in the global OTC and listed markets offering an array of sophisticated trading technologies and products to a broad range of financial market participants.  More than 2,400 institutional clients benefit from GFI’s know-how and experience in operating electronic and hybrid markets for cash and derivative products across multiple asset classes, including fixed income, interest rates, foreign exchange, equities, energy and commodities.  GFI’s brands include GFISM, GFInet®, CreditMatch®, GFI ForexMatch®, EnergyMatch®, FENICS®, Starsupply®, Amerex® and Trayport®.

Founded in 1987 and headquartered in New York, GFI employs over 1,900 people globally, with additional offices in London, Paris, Brussels, Nyon, Dublin, Madrid, Sugar Land (TX), Hong Kong, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Cape Town, Santiago, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Lima and Mexico City. For more information, please visit www.gfigroup.com.

GFI is majority-owned by, and will operate as a division of, BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC Partners’ Class A common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC Partners also has outstanding Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard W. Lutnick.  For more information, please visit www.bgcpartners.com.

Discussion of Forward-Looking Statements About GFI

Statements in this document regarding GFI’s businesses that are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties. Except as required by law, GFI undertakes no obligation to release any revisions to any forward-looking statements. For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see GFI’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors set forth in public filings, including GFI’s most recent Forms 10-K and any updates to such risk factors contained in subsequent Forms 10-Q or Forms 8-K filings.

*Source: FINRA TRACE 2014 US Bond Dealer to Dealer Trades, Size Frequency and Cumulative Volume for 2014.

SOURCE GFI Group Inc.