LONDON, December 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: MKTX), the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for U.S. and European high-grade corporate bonds, emerging markets bonds and other fixed income securities, has been named as Funds Europe's 'European Trading Venue of the Year' at the magazine's annual awards ceremony held at the Tower of London last night. This award recognizes MarketAxess' track record of innovation in delivering a market-leading e-trading platform for a comprehensive suite of credit products.

Earlier this year, MarketAxess launched its next generation e-trading platform for credit default swaps (CDS) and has seen increasing traction in CDS e-trading over the past several months. MarketAxess today has eight leading dealers live on its platform, with client-to-dealer trades taking place using the firm's patented request-for-quote (RFQ) trading protocol. In addition these dealers are streaming executable markets for CDS indices in Europe and the US, allowing clients a choice in their preference of trading protocols for derivatives. MarketAxess is registered as an MTF in Europe, and today has much of the core technology needed to meet the anticipated regulatory requirements for registration as a swap execution facility (SEF) and security-based SEF in the US.

In addition to the recent and important development in CDS, MarketAxess has seen consistent success in its core credit businesses, having now achieved record revenue and earnings growth over ten consecutive quarters, with the company's total trading volume increasing 31% year over year as of Q3 2011.

Paul Ellis, Head of MarketAxess Europe, commented on the award:
"MarketAxess has led the way in preparing for the anticipated reforms under MiFID II/MiFIR in Europe, as well as Dodd-Frank in the US.  This is evidenced by growing traction on our CDS platform, alongside record revenue and earnings growth. We are delighted to be recognised by Funds Europe for our exceptional performance. These accomplishments, together with our work and correspondence with the regulatory authorities, have established MarketAxess as the most innovative platform within the credit market space."

About MarketAxess

MarketAxess operates a leading electronic trading platform that enables investment industry professionals to efficiently trade corporate bonds and other types of fixed-income instruments. MarketAxess' patented trading technology allows institutional investor clients to request competitive, executable bids or offers from multiple broker-dealers simultaneously, and to execute trades with the broker-dealer of their choice. Over 850 institutional investors are active users of the MarketAxess trading platform, accessing the global liquidity provided by MarketAxess' 80 broker-dealer clients in U.S. high-grade corporate bonds, European bonds, high yield and emerging markets bonds, agency bonds, asset-backed and preferred securities and credit default swaps. MarketAxess also offers a number of trading-related products and services, including: market data to assist clients with trading decisions; connectivity solutions that facilitate straight-through processing; technology services to optimize trading environments; and execution services for exchange-traded fund managers and other clients.

MarketAxess maintains its headquarters in New York and has offices in London, Chicago and Salt Lake City. For more information, please visit http://www.marketaxess.com.

SOURCE MarketAxess Holdings Inc.