Refinitiv partners Nairobi Stock Exchange for transparency in secondary fixed income market in Kenya

Refinitiv partnered with the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) to enhance Fixed Income (FI) price discovery and raise market transparency in Kenya.

 As part of the partnership, the NSE will roll out Refinitiv Fixed Income Callouts in Kenya, an automated workflow that facilitates negotiations and agreements of secondary Fixed Income (FI) bond trading among banks, brokerage firms, and real-time integration with the Central Securities Depository (CSD). The primary FI market has been steadily growing in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as governments explore better access to financing. According to the 2020 Refinitiv investment banking review, SSA debt issuance totalled US$19.0 billion in 2020. With the increased accessibility to technology, electronic trading has emerged as a significant channel to the growth of a secondary FI market across the continent.

The deployment of Refinitiv’s solution will enable the NSE to benefit from an automated Over the Counter (OTC) FI workflow that is integrated in real time with both, the Securities Exchange and the CSD in Kenya. Geoffrey Odundo, Chief Executive Officer, Nairobi Securities Exchange, said: “We are excited to be working with Refinitiv and the fixed income community to drive innovations in our market and adopt global best practices. Refinitiv’s trading workflow combined with NSE’s post-trade system will help us improve trade life cycle, reduce operational risks and encourage price discovery and transparency in the market.” Nadim Najjar, Managing Director, Middle East and Africa, Refinitiv, said, “We are proud to partner with the NSE and the local regulators to foster transparency, latency and liquidity. Refinitiv Fixed Income Callouts will allow market participants to benefit from real-time price discovery across bonds and bills. The deployment will also facilitate collaboration among Kenyan banks, brokerage firms, and the CSD.”

“The Kenyan financial markets have seen significant growth over the past few years. This partnership reinforces our commitment to enable the local regulators and financial community with advanced technologies and workflows to achieve efficiency and growth. The adoption of Refinitiv Fixed Income Callouts will create an effective market infrastructure, build greater long-term confidence amongst investors, and ensure strong governance processes,” he added.