Tradeweb Markets Inc Q4 2024 Earnings Call Summary

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

Question: Chris Allen - Citi - Analyst : Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. I want to talk about trade swaps. Billy, as you noted, the macro backdrop is in flux right now. So maybe you could frame out and flush out the current environment. It's a conducive risk on trading. Then on compression activity that's -- moderated percentage of activity. Is that a function of less opportunities in compression trading, more risk-based trading by clients, or something else?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Billy, in your prepared remarks, you talked a lot about technology, innovation. I was wondering if you could talk about digital assets for a moment. There's been a couple announcements coming from Tradeweb partnering, I think, with Goldman Sachs' spin-out digital assets platform. Can you kind of talk about what you're doing here? How do you see blockchain technology, crypto, any and all of the above sort of fitting into the broader Tradeweb business? Or what are you doing and what are you thinking that may come from this over the next many years? Thanks.

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Thanks for the call, Billy.

Question: Alex Blostein - Goldman Sachs & Company, Inc. - Analyst : Sorry, guys, the phone broke up a little bit. I couldn't hear whether it was my name or somebody else's. Hey, good morning. Question for Sarah, just kind of turn into the guidance for a minute. So encouraging you kind of put a comment in there around still delivering positive operating leverage this year, albeit I guess at a lower pace than what you saw last year. Can you just talk a little bit about your ability to pivot the expense base, given that there's clearly some uncertainty around the revenue environment? You guys come off a really strong growth last year. So if you were at a slower pace of revenue growth, could you be below the guide to still deliver kind of this positive operating leverage? Or how would those two things work together? Thanks.

Question: Alex Blostein - Goldman Sachs & Company, Inc. - Analyst : No, thank you. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 06, 2025 / 2:30PM, TW.OQ - Q4 2024 Tradeweb Markets Inc Earnings Call

Question: Dan Fannon - Jefferies LLC - Analyst : Great, thanks. Billy, I was hoping you could talk about just kind of at a high level, you've got looser regulation potentially coming from banks. And as you think about the electrification trends that have been so strong, do you see that changing at all? Banks are going to be using more balance sheet or taking on more risk or potentially keep a little bit more in-house versus some of the trends that have been so prevalent the last couple of years.

Question: Dan Fannon - Jefferies LLC - Analyst : Thank you.

Question: Craig Siegenthaler - BofA Global Research - Analyst : Good morning, Billy. Hope everyone's doing well. And I think my name went out a little bit like Alex's, but I'm here.

Question: Craig Siegenthaler - BofA Global Research - Analyst : I'm good. So our question is on streaming and session trading volumes in US treasuries. So there's some industry data out there that's pointing towards an accelerating adoption of streaming and session trading in rates over just the last kind of few quarters. What are you seeing in terms of protocol usage in treasuries?

Question: Alex Kramm - UBS - Analyst : Yeah. Hey, good morning, everyone. Billy, when you walked through the investment priorities earlier in your prepared remarks, credit again was number one. And I'm just wondering how much you're increasing the focus there. I think some people think that into 2025, with all the tailwinds that you have, you're really going to dial up the competitiveness and be more disruptive. So just wondering, if this is rights, how much more of a focus credit can even become? And what are you going to do, in particular, to continue that market share gaining? And then, of course, how much price -- I will have to ask on that -- how much price will be a factor as well?

Question: Alex Kramm - UBS - Analyst : Of course. Thank you. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 06, 2025 / 2:30PM, TW.OQ - Q4 2024 Tradeweb Markets Inc Earnings Call

Question: Patrick Moley - Piper Sandler & Co. - Analyst : Yeah. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. So it's been about seven months now since you closed the ICD acquisition. So Billy, was hoping you could maybe just give a state of the union on how the integration's gone. Any success that you've seen in cross-selling their capabilities to your client network? And just any kind of milestones that maybe we should be on the lookout for in 2025?

Question: Jeff Schmitt - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Hi, Jeff Schmitt here. So in the institutional channel for treasuries, you continue to see strong growth in automated trades. What's changed in that market or with your automated protocol that's driving such strong client adoption? And how much of your treasury mix is automated today?

Question: Jeff Schmitt - William Blair & Company, L.L.C. - Analyst : Great, thank you.

Question: Kyle Voigt - Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. - Analyst : Hi, good morning, everyone. So after completing both r8fin and ICD in 2024, just curious if I could check in on your appetite for additional M&A in 2025. What capabilities would you look to add? And is there any way to frame whether we should still expect more bolt-on type deals or whether large scale M&A is also on the table?

Question: Kyle Voigt - Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. - Analyst : Thank you.

Question: Michael Cyprys - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC - Analyst : Hey, thanks for squeezing me in here. Billy, you talked about emerging markets. That's going to be a larger part of the growth story for Tradeweb. Can you just talk about some of the initiatives and steps you're thinking about taking there to accelerate growth? How do you see this part of the business contributing over time? And what sort of products, countries you think could be most meaningful?

Question: Michael Cyprys - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC - Analyst : Great, thank you.