About Richard Mcvey
In December 2021, McVey announced a MarketAxess initiative to help minority, women, and veteran-owned broker dealers gain access to large asset managers. He stated that the company's "open trading" model "eliminates trading barriers and allows anyone to trade with anyone else," and that the initiative would create new opportunities for diverse dealers while adding liquidity to the trading system. McVey said the company had received a positive response from firms including BlackRock, AllianceBernstein, and others, and described the effort as part of institutional investors' ESG priorities.
Throughout 2020 and 2021, McVey reported record trading volumes on MarketAxess, attributing growth to increased adoption of electronic trading during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that once traders experience electronic trading, they "really don't go back," and noted that the company saw a record number of client firms and individual traders in March 2020. McVey has described MarketAxess's focus as primarily on credit markets, including high-grade corporate bonds, high-yield, and emerging market debt, which he characterized as historically less liquid. He has also expressed support for price transparency in bond markets, stating it "creates a fair market for everyone" and reduces transaction costs.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Richard Mcvey's recent appearances.
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Transcript (13 segments)
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Unknown0:09
Today, as the firm MarketAxess announced a new initiative to help minority, women, and veteran owned business owners get access to large asset managers like BlackRock. The chairman of MarketAxess joins us.
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Richard Mcvey0:27
Happy to be here.
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Interviewer0:28
What does this mean in practical terms for diverse broker dealers?
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Richard Mcvey0:33
It is all about increased trading community for the diversity and minority owned dealer community. The unique part about our business model is we have created this wide open all to all marketplace for global bonds trading through Open Trading that eliminates trading barriers and allows anyone to trade with anyone else. This is a great way to leverage that network and create new opportunities for the diversity of minority owned dealers, and at the same time add important liquidity to our trading system.
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Interviewer1:05
Is that what has been the biggest problem? Is it liquidity? Is it infrastructure? Is it just lack of access?
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Richard Mcvey1:13
All of the above. The old model does not promote exposing orders more broadly to more dealer firms. The new model of MarketAxess does. We are using technology to make it very easy for investment managers to have a direct trading relationship with the broader community of dealers, and no better way for them to do that right now than to expand this to the diversity and minority owned firms.
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Interviewer1:39
Like Courtney Luke Capital, right? You are one of the firms involved and you are also on the board of MarketAxess, right?
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Richard Mcvey1:48
Absolutely, Scott. It's a tremendous opportunity. I mean, the way that this executive leadership team really collaborated to say how can we not only be impactful as a part of our diversity initiatives, but also add value to our clients and our shareholders, and increase liquidity in the markets more broadly. It is just a tremendous, tremendous initiative that I am proud to be a part of.
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Interviewer2:12
Rick, this would essentially create more liquidity for the bond market itself, direct?
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Richard Mcvey2:19
It absolutely does. That's been your thesis and our model from the beginning. This is another important step forward to introduce new liquidity into the order flow that we see from global institutional investment managers. And the other new feature to this is that we have unbundled a traditional bond trading revenue into two pieces. So that firms like Courtney's that have full service capabilities and trading can go on trading with institutional clients as they have been. But other firms can participate through post trade revenues, an unbundled revenue model. There are two ways to really increase opportunity for the diversity and minority owned firms.
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Interviewer2:58
Institutional players, I assume, want to do this as part of their ESG efforts, which are obviously all the rage these days.
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Richard Mcvey3:08
They absolutely do. This is an important priority for them. And the best news is we are making it really easy for them to do. So we have had a great response, as you mentioned, from leading investment manager firms like BlackRock, AllianceBernstein, and others. We think this is just going to be a great initiative for everyone. We are creating more opportunity for dealers and investors. And we are proud to be part of it and use our network in this way.
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Interviewer3:35
Yeah. Congratulations on your efforts. I know Courtney is proud of them as well.
