7 Online Brokers to Give Consumers the Ability to Trade Bonds the Same Way they Trade Stocks with eSpeed
(PR Newswire, 05/15/2000 14:06)
eSpeed, Inc. Agrees with A.B. Watley, Web Street Securities, Muriel Siebert
& Co., Tradescape.com, NetInvestor, Bondpage.com and Scottrade
Alliances Expected to Bring Wholesale Bond Trading
To Individual Investors Everywhere
NEW YORK, May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- eSpeed, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESPD), the leading provider of real-time business-to-business electronic marketplaces, today announced that it has signed agreements with A.B. Watley (NASDAQ:ABWG), Muriel Siebert & Co. (NASDAQ:SIEB), Web Street Securities, Tradescape.com, NetInvestor, Bondpage.com and Scottrade, to offer individual investors direct access to electronic trading of bonds, providing access in the same way that individual investors currently have access to the equity markets. For the first time ever, customers of these online brokers will have full electronic access to buy and sell bonds through eSpeed's global network. A copy of eSpeed's May 9th announcement of its agreement with Charles Schwab & Co. is attached.
"For the first time in history, individual investors will be able to buy and sell bonds effectively in the same way they now buy and sell stocks," said eSpeed President Frederick T. Varacchi. "The size of the markets investors will now have full electronic access to is staggering. For too long, retail investors have been isolated from that liquidity. By opening these markets up, we've brought an incredible new opportunity for people to trade bonds."
In size, the U.S. bond markets are more than five times the size of the stock markets. For example, about $40 billion in trades take place on the NASDAQ every day and about $35 billion on the NYSE. These trades represent about 5,000 individual stocks. By comparison, about $200 billion in trades are executed in U.S. Government securities alone, every day.
Howard W. Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of eSpeed said, "We anticipate that these relationships will give investors unprecedented access to the world's most liquid wholesale market for bonds."
In the past, there was no liquid bond market, as there is in the stock markets. As a result of these agreements, it is anticipated that in the near future investors will be able to buy and sell U.S. Treasuries at the wholesale market price at the click of a mouse.
Online brokers will link their customers to the wholesale bond market through eSpeed Online(SM) Service. Whether they use eSpeed Online's proprietary software tool kit or an Application Program Interface (API), online brokers will be able to tailor the system to their corporate look and feel. Customers will therefore have the same Web experience they are accustomed to from their online broker. eSpeed Online, will also link to the brokers' middle and back office systems, providing a complete end-to-end mechanism for trade execution, risk management, processing and billing.
Since 1996, eSpeed's systems have enabled over 500 financial institutions around the globe, including the world's 25 largest bond brokerage houses to trade bonds in an electronic system. Over $150 billion in transactions cross eSpeed's systems daily.
David Kravette, a Managing Director at eSpeed added, "Because of the sheer volume and volatility of the wholesale bond market, the speed of electronic trading is an essential tool for investors. The bond markets are robust, intensive environments."
eSpeed Online(SM) Service
Through eSpeed Online, online brokerage firms can offer their retail investors the unique opportunity to transact directly with the highly liquid wholesale market for bonds. eSpeed OnLine is delivered to online brokers either as a software tool kit or eSpeed's industry leading open Application Program Interface (API), enabling each online broker to tailor the system to their look and feel on the front end, as well as full straight through processing to their middle and back office systems.
All trades using the eSpeed Online(SM) Service are executed and confirmed in real-time. If the online broker desires, eSpeed Online will net all of the trades and forward one end-of-day settlement for each security traded that day. As a result, online brokerages can realize considerable savings in back office processing and clearing fees. In addition, eSpeed Online offers a completely paperless, hands-off trade process. For more information on eSpeed Online, please call David Kravette at 212-938-3952 or dkravette@espeed.com
eSpeed, Inc. and Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. Sign Deal to Give Retail
Investors Broader Access to Electronic Trading of U.S. Treasury and U.S.
Agency Securities
NEW YORK -- eSpeed, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESPD), a leading provider of real-time business-to-business electronic marketplaces, and Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., one of the nation's leading financial service providers (NYSE:SCH), today announced they have signed an agreement to offer individual investors broader access to electronic trading of U.S. Treasury and U.S. Agency securities. Through an electronic link to eSpeed, Schwab customers will have the opportunity to buy and sell a broader array of U.S. Treasury securities and U.S. Agency securities via schwab.com.
"Individual investors will soon be able to buy and sell bonds as efficiently as they buy and sell stocks," said eSpeed President Frederick T. Varacchi. "Until now, individual retail investors have not been able to take advantage of the incredible trading opportunities that electronic access to bond markets can provide. This agreement means that the on-line investing revolution has taken a new turn. We're excited to be working with Schwab in changing the way people trade and invest in bonds electronically."
"This is a new relationship between Charles Schwab and eSpeed," said John Ladensack, Senior Vice President of fixed income at Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. "Our agreement is an important part of Schwab's new electronic bond trading system which we plan to roll out this summer. It's all about choice. While our relationship with eSpeed begins with Treasuries and Agencies, it has the potential to expand to other fixed income products."
In size, the U.S. bond markets are more than five times the size of the stock markets. For example, about $40 billion in trades take place on the NASDAQ every day and about $35 billion on the NYSE. These trades represent about 5,000 individual stocks. By comparison, about $200 billion in trades are executed in U.S. Government securities alone, every day.
Electronic access to the bond market will be provided by eSpeed. Execution services for Charles Schwab & Co. Inc.'s trades will be provided by Cantor Fitzgerald, which provides a broad spectrum of institutional brokerage and execution services to the global financial markets and is the world's largest broker of U.S. government securities, Eurobonds, and international sovereign debt. Over $150 billion in transactions cross eSpeed's systems daily. Since 1996, the technology that powers eSpeed's systems has enabled over 500 financial institutions around the globe, including the world's 25 largest bond-trading houses, to trade bonds in an electronic system.
About Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.
Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (member SIPC/NYSE) is one of the nation's leading financial service providers, serving 6.9 million active investor accounts with $823 billion in customer assets. Of these, approximately 3.7 million are active online accounts with $418 billion in customer assets. Schwab provides a full-service investing experience to customers through a "clicks and mortar" multi-dimensional offering of the Internet, 356 branch offices, speech recognition, touch-tone telephone, e-mail technologies, multilingual and international services, and access to professionals day or night. About 30 percent of Schwab's customer assets and 10 percent of its customer accounts are managed by the 5,900 independent, fee-based investment advisors served through its Schwab Institutional division. Schwab is creating a new model of full-service investing in which information flows freely, and investors make their own decisions with objective advice when and how they need it.
About eSpeed, Inc.
eSpeed, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESPD) operates multiple buyer/multiple seller real- time B2B electronic marketplaces. eSpeed's suite of marketplace tools provides an end-to-end solution -- transaction processing, network distribution, risk management, back-end processing and billing -- for the trading of products via the Internet or over eSpeed's global private network. eSpeed currently provides the marketplace infrastructure for most of the worlds fixed income marketplaces, transacting over $150 billion of financial instruments daily. eSpeed is headquartered in New York. Additional information on eSpeed is available via the Internet at espeed.com.
Statements contained in this Press Release which are not historical facts are forward-looking statements, as the term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors, which include, but are not limited to: the limited operating history of eSpeed, Inc., its expected incurrence of future losses and negative cash flow from operations for the foreseeable future, its ability to enter into marketing and strategic alliances, to effectively manage its growth, to expand the use of its electronic systems, and to induce customers to use its marketplaces and services and other factors that are discussed in eSpeed's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. SOURCE eSpeed, Inc.
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