Bond Trading Poll: International bonds
Bond Trading Poll: Government bonds
Bond Trading Poll: Methodology
Deutsche Bank has marched to the top of this year's polls for trading international bonds, rising from second position last year. It owes its top spot to dominance in most of the new euro-market categories.
Following the advent of the euro we have added new classifications to our annual poll. This year there are categories for straight bonds, floating-rate notes and convertibles in the euro market, as well as categories for different maturity buckets. This reflects how many firms have abandoned their old country-based trading desks and have increasingly organized themselves around short-dated, intermediate and long-term bond traders, with separate traders for government and credit bonds.
Deutsche Bank rose from 15th to sixth in trading straight dollar bonds and from 12th to fifth place in dollar FRNs, but won its overall top spot by leading trading of euro FRNs and straights, and also ranked top in various categories of credit bonds, including corporate, bank and Pfandbrief.
Hub and spokes
So what has Deutsche done to improve its showing so much? Three to four years ago the firm implemented a strategy to consolidate disjointed regional and country operations into a cohesive structure, while still maintaining a strong presence on the ground.