Interactive Brokers Launches Bond Marketplace, Scanner

Last week, trading technology and brokerage service Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. IBKR introduced a bond scanning tool to help clients and non-clients find better pricing. Steve Sanders, EVP Marketing and Product Development, spoke with Benzinga regarding the new tool and plans to further expand the IBKR product portfolio.

Background

Initially an options market making firm, Interactive Brokers Group is a deep-discount electronic access broker for online equity, options, futures and forex trading.

The company's core mission is to “Create technology to provide liquidity on better terms. Compete on price, speed, size, diversity of global products and advanced trading tools.”

What’s New?

On the heels of IBKR’s launch of a commission-free stock and ETF trading solution, IBKR Lite, the firm is now taking on bond price transparency with Bond Scanner, a bond selection tool.

IBKR is a holistic destination for global assets; the firm’s core bond portfolio consists of:

• Government and Municipal Securities.
• Global Corporate Bonds
• CDs and non-U.S. Sovereign Bonds
• Fixed Income Futures and Options

“This was actually a personal mission,” Sanders told Benzinga. “Most brokers build in a mark-up, [adding] a commission on top."

The addition of the Bond Scanner allows clients and non-clients pricing access to IBKR’s large inventory of bonds.

“You put in your parameters (e.g., maturity dates; industries; or in the case of munis, states; and what kind of risk you want to take on) and click view results. The prices will display in terms of what I consider the best metric -- yield-to-worst -- because that tells you how much of the yield you’ll make on these bonds.”

According to IBKR, the Bond Scanner allows for the following:

• Search capabilities for specific maturities, yields and investment grades.
• Scanning functionality for corporate bonds via industry and state for municipal bonds.
• Moody’s and S&P ratings filter to evaluate risk.

What’s Next?

“We plan on introducing as many bond ATSs as we possibly can. Not only in the U.S., but overseas. We always want to be the largest electronic marketplace for bonds, so that’s our future plan,” he said.

Aside from the new bond-price scanner, IBKR has improved check deposit capabilities with the IBKR Mobile app, added new features on its trading platforms such as fractional share trading, ESG Scores on ETFs and Mutual Funds, as well as What-If Cash Adjustments in the IB Risk Navigator, to help users better manage risk.

To learn more about new solutions at IBKR, visit IBKR.com.

Photo by Aditya Vyas on Unsplash