A display of listed equities at the NSE. PHOTO | CITIZEN DIGITAL The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has automated its bonds trading platform as it eyes efficiency in the trading of the fixed income instruments.
The bourse has linked its bonds system with Refinitiv’s fixed income call outs application (FICO) which represents an automated workflow facilitating trading terms among banks, brokerage firms and the Central Securities Depository (CSD).
“We are pleased to offer investors and market participants an automated trading workflow that will improve trade life cycle, reduce operational risks and encourage price discovery and transparency in the bond market,” said NSE Chief Executive Officer Geoffrey Odundo.
“This integration underscores our commitment to offer best-in-class infrastructure solutions for efficient trading and clearing of financial markets transactions and adoption of global best practices as we seek to position NSE as the region’s leading financial infrastructure provider.”
Market players are set to benefit from the certainty of trade executions alongside access to real time and historical data on fixed income transactions.
The transition is also set to eliminate costs from the duplication of work and manual interventions.
The automation of bonds trading comes on the back of increased investor interest in the secondary bonds market as participants find safe haven in government securities.
According to data from the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) total bond turnover across 2020 rose hit a Ksh.691.9 billion high from Ksh.655 billion in 2019.
99.8 per cent of bond turnover activity covered Treasury bonds with private issues only representing a fraction Ksh.1.2 billion of total bonds activity.
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