At the China Bond Market International Forum today, jointly with China Foreign Exchange Trade System (National Interbank Funding Center) ("CFETS"), Bloomberg announced that it and its global affiliates will start to provide qualified investors with channels to access China’s interbank bond market (“CIBM”). Global investors can now begin to trade onshore Chinese bonds via the Bloomberg Terminal. Bloomberg is the first global trading platform connected to CFETS that will offer access to both CIBM Direct and Bond Connect, the two most popular schemes used by offshore China investors.
"For some time now, we have been working closely with the People's Bank of China, CFETS, Hong Kong Exchange and other parties to advance China’s bond market development and facilitate greater investor access," said Mary Schapiro, Vice Chair for Global Public Policy and Special Advisor to the Founder and Chairman of Bloomberg L.P. "With these two new access channels, we expect the appetite to seek yield, liquidity and alpha in China's $12 trillion bond market to grow further. As China continues to deepen its financial reform, China's bond market is an opportunity many investors can no longer ignore."
Under the CIBM Direct scheme, Bloomberg's voice confirmation feature ("VCON") is now connected to CFETS to form a seamless trade ticket communication service. With this service, offshore investors can send trade details to their corresponding onshore agent banks via VCON on the Bloomberg Terminal. Alternatively, onshore agent banks can send pre-filled messages to their offshore clients who are using Bloomberg's VCON to register trades on CFETS.
For global investors who use Bond Connect to trade onshore bonds, Bond Connect on the Bloomberg Terminal opens up a new access point through Bloomberg's execution management system ("TSOX") integrating with CFETS. Authorized Bloomberg Terminal users[1] can initiate a request to receive quotes from a number of user-selected Chinese dealers who support Bond Connect. Each invited dealer can provide pricing in response to the request, providing institutional investors with the information necessary to execute a transaction. Through TSOX, traders are able to benefit from the end-to-end handling of transactions via Bond Connect, enabling greater transparency and efficiency.
"The global financial community has been looking forward to these additional trading solutions and channels from Bloomberg,” said Tu Hong, Chief Investment Officer, Bank of Communications. "These trading solutions will not only provide additional avenues for foreign investors, but will also simplify the workflow for market participants, creating maximum efficiencies."
