Marketaxess Holdings Inc at Barclays Global Financial Services Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Maybe just to kick it off, Chris, I think something investors are really interested in is some of the changes you've been making in the block trading business, something you guys have been talking a lot about on the earnings calls. Maybe unpack a little bit of what you're seeing, what's driving the success of block trading for EM and Eurobond? What's kind of different about those markets versus the US wider creators attitudes, seemingly different to electronic blocks.

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Can I -- if you go back, I'm just kind of curious, I think investors are very attuned to like TRACE, what levels of TRACE is electronified, it's pretty easy when the top two competitors are public and give you a lot of data every month. What about outside the US? So to what degree is this market share gains, electronic market share gains is duration impacting your fee capture rate outside the US? How would you characterize that 13% non-US?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Maybe just a couple of follow-ups. So in the US, you've had a number of targeted initiatives, the buildout of X-Pro to try to get people conditions to not go to all but to go to that targeted list. Where are you in that process? Like how many of -- like the big fixed income trading firms or getting that experience when they see the market --

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Got it. How should investors think about that timeline? We're all an impatient bunch. When you say it will be slow, does that mean a couple of quarters, a year, is there any way to kind of get a sense?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Maybe one more follow-up. I mean, how do you think about the interplay between blocks and portfolio trading I've heard your competitor talk about portfolio trading as one of the solutions to blocks. Investors get used to single large size trades that kind of make sense logically. Is that part of your strategy? Or are they very much separate? Or is it I don't know, everything -- whatever works.

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Really interesting. Maybe switching gears a little bit, stepping back. You kind of mentioned in some of your initial commentary that there's a lot of macro factors that impact your share, the duration, the capture rates. Can you talk a bit about what you're seeing more recently, volatility spreads, how other exogenous factors are impacting the business? I think by now, we have your August update that came out last week. What are you seeing so far in September? How does the back half of the year seem to be shaping out?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : So what would you say are the most important factors maybe going into 2026, spread widening, market volatility, ongoing new issuance. I know there's a lot of different factors, but obviously a normalized yield curve could be pretty impactful to the FPM. But what do you think could evolve in like the most maybe constructive way for MarketAxess?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Maybe coming back to some of the protocols we impact block trading quite a bit. Let's talk about portfolio trading a little bit. You've shown some progress over the last year or two in terms of your electronic -- your market share of PT volumes. What would you say were the key changes you made to catch up? How do you feel about your current level of PT share versus where you'd like to be? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 09, 2025 / 4:00PM, MKTX.OQ - Marketaxess Holdings Inc at Barclays Global Financial Services Conference

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Got it. We'll come back to the dealer topic in a moment. But just one more follow-up on portfolio trading. You mentioned earlier that you're seeing like smaller tickets find their way into portfolio trades. I mean how do you think about the longer-term potential for portfolio trading relative to the broader market? How much market activity could be handled through portfolio trades in some end states?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Got it. Maybe moving back to the D2D business. Just high level, how are you thinking about the strategy here? You talked about the Mid-X solution. What are you doing to be more competitive in this segment?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : How important is price in this segment?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : And just a timing question, just to kind of level set. So I think you mentioned it launches next week. Will it be broadly available across your dealer community? Does it take some time?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Maybe switching gears a little bit. You talked about algorithmic trading a little bit earlier. Maybe just high level, what's your view on the overall adoption of algorithm trading by the buy side and to what extent is this increasing electronification? Is there potential for more bond market liquidity? You kind of suggested yes, earlier and potential for turnover to meaningfully improve and then what are the P&L implications? Clearly, more electronic volume is positive? How do we think about the peak capture rate for MarketAxess?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Okay. Great. Maybe a couple of separate topics just to touch on before we wrap up. In terms of your ICE partnership, been a little over a year since that was announced, the combination of your liquidity pools. Maybe give us an update there. What's the latest hour volumes trending?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Got it. Totally separate topic, private credit, this has come up a few times with you guys and some of the alternative asset managers have been increasingly talking about making those markets more liquid. How might MarketAxess be positioned to participate in that trend if it were to really pick up?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : And maybe just lastly, capital allocation. I think you've commented recently that the balance sheet is very well positioned for potential M&A. How do you think about that M&A framework? What are your top priorities? What makes sense to buy rather than build?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Well, we're nearly out of time, so I think we'll have to leave it there. But Chris, Ilene, thank you so much for being here. Would a pleasure to have you.