RIA custodian Altruist has launched fully digital fixed-income trading for advisors.
Calling it the fixed-income trading center, Altruist partnered with startup Moment as its infrastructure partner.
Among the features of the new trading center is what Altruist calls a modern screener, increased data transparency and a click-to-trade functionality built directly into Altruist’s platform.
Advisors can browse bond inventory, see real-time pricing and filter across U.S. Treasuries, corporate and municipal bonds, certificates of deposit and government agency securities within the screener. And it provides reference data, including historical yield, maturity and pricing.
According to Altruist, the click-to-trade feature is powered by Moment, allows users to quickly create orders, and offers automated smart-order routing, all within the Altruist platform.
Moment raised $20 million in a Series A funding round a year ago, led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Venrock, Contrary, Neo and Henry R. Kravis.
Moment also announced a partnership with Altruist rival Apex Fintech Solutions last year.
Moment noted in its blog post announcing the funding raise that despite fixed income being the world’s most traded asset class (more than three times the size of global equities, according to the firm), in 2013, only 8% of investment-grade corporate bond volume was traded electronically, and that had grown by 2022 to 45%.
“Technology has propelled the financial advice industry forward, yet fixed income trading has lagged behind,” said Harpreet Ahluwalia, chief product officer at Altruist, in the company’s announcement. “When you make it easier for advisors to navigate the bond market, clients benefit from more predictable cash flows and deeper portfolio personalization.”
Altruist raised a $169 million Series E round in May, valuing the firm at $1.5 billion.
Also in May, Altruist said it worked with 3,700 advisors and 2,500 RIA firms on its platform, making it the third-largest custodian, behind Schwab and Fidelity, by number of RIA customer firms, though not by assets under management, which it does not share or publish.
