The TRADE: IMTC Integrates with MarketAxess to Boost Fixed Income Liquidity Access

The TRADE reported this week on IMTC’s integration with MarketAxess, the electronic trading platform for credit markets. The connection lets mutual clients route orders from IMTC’s portfolio and order management technology directly into MarketAxess, giving them access to its liquidity across credit products without leaving the workflow they already use.

Portfolio managers running custom portfolios, model-driven strategies, and SMAs spend a lot of time bridging the gap between a portfolio decision and an executable order. As The TRADE notes, the integration is designed to bring MarketAxess’ liquidity closer to the moment that decision gets made, so scaling those strategies does not mean adding more manual steps or more cost across the trade lifecycle.

Spencer Lee, head of products at MarketAxess, Americas, framed it from the liquidity side: “By integrating with IMTC’s portfolio and order management technology, we are embedding that liquidity directly into the investment workflow, making it easier for our mutual clients to discover opportunities, execute with confidence, and achieve better outcomes across fixed-income markets.”

IMTC CEO Russell Feldman put the emphasis on what has to sit together for fixed income to scale: “As firms look to scale fixed income management, PMs need optimisation, compliance, and execution to operate in one connected workflow. Partnering with a leader like MarketAxess allows our mutual clients to tap into a deep liquidity network while turning portfolio decisions into executable orders with greater precision, scale, and auditability.”

The article also places the deal in context. MarketAxess has been steadily plugging its liquidity into third-party workflow tools, with OptimX in June 2026 and FactSet in September 2025 among recent examples. For fixed income managers, that trend matters. The question is shifting from whether a platform can reach liquidity at all to how tightly execution is wired into the rest of the investment process.

Read the full article by Zara Richardson on The TRADE: IMTC integrates with MarketAxess to boost fixed income liquidity access

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Q&A

What does it mean to bring liquidity to the point of portfolio decision-making?

It means a portfolio manager can see and act on tradable inventory from an electronic venue inside the same system where portfolios are built and optimized, instead of deciding first and hunting for liquidity later in a separate trading tool. The IMTC and MarketAxess integration does exactly that: MarketAxess liquidity across credit products is reachable from IMTC’s portfolio and order management workflows, so orders route out without leaving the platform.

What does execution quality mean in fixed income trading?

Execution quality is how close a completed trade lands to the best available terms at the time, measured by price relative to the market, how much of the order fills, and the cost and time it takes. Because bonds trade over the counter across many dealers and venues, quality depends on how much liquidity a desk can reach and how fast it can act. The IMTC and MarketAxess integration is designed to improve execution quality while cutting costs across the trade lifecycle, by putting a deep liquidity network inside the workflow where orders are created.

How does IMTC turn portfolio decisions into executable orders?

IMTC generates orders as the direct output of its portfolio optimization, so the trades a manager approves are already sized across accounts and checked against compliance rules before they reach the order management workflow. From there they can be routed to connected venues, including MarketAxess, without leaving the platform. As IMTC CEO Russell Feldman told The TRADE, PMs need optimization, compliance, and execution to operate in one connected workflow, with an audit trail that follows the order from decision to fill.

Why are electronic trading venues integrating with portfolio and order management platforms?

Because that is where buy-side trading decisions originate. Meeting managers inside their existing workflow removes the friction of switching systems and puts venue liquidity in front of orders at the moment they are created. The TRADE frames IMTC as the latest in a run of such moves by MarketAxess, following OptimX in June 2026 and FactSet in September 2025. For IMTC clients, a platform chosen for construction, optimization, and compliance now also reaches MarketAxess’ credit liquidity.

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