NEW YORK, March 10, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:MKTX), the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, and the provider of market data and post-trade services for the global fixed-income markets, announced today it will expand its trading system in April to the $3.6 trillion municipal bond market.

MarketAxess expects to have approximately 60 dealers and 250 institutional investor firms connected to the municipal bond platform when it launches, including many of the largest asset managers in the municipal bond market. MarketAxess currently has more than 1,000 institutional investors and broker dealers worldwide on its corporate bond platform.More than 6,000 users log in to its electronic platform daily to trade investment grade, high yield and emerging market securities, as well as Eurobonds.

Kevin McPherson, Global Head of Sales for MarketAxess, said: “We’re responding to what clients have told us are the critical needs in today’s muni market for broader access to liquidity, better price discovery and greater efficiency.   This launch is an exciting opportunity to bring our 15 years of electronic trading expertise and innovation to a highly fragmented market that still relies heavily on manual processes.”

MarketAxess’ all-to-all Open Trading™ will be available for municipal bond trading, enabling all Open Trading participants on the platform to trade anonymously with all other participants.The platform enables institutional investors and dealers to electronically submit single-item inquiries, or bid/offer lists to a broad and centralized pool of liquidity providers on MarketAxess.

MarketAxess has hired Hardy Manges to spearhead its dealer sales efforts for municipal bonds. Manges joins from Cantor Fitzgerald, where he was Managing Director of Municipal Trading. Pat Furlong, previously of Sterne Agee, has also joined the firm to focus on the development of the municipal bond platform.Furlong, who has more than 30 years of experience in the municipal bond industry, will spearhead the firm’s buy-side sales effort.