Richard G. Ketchum, former chairman and chief executive officer of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, has been elected to the Board of Directors of MarketAxess Holdings Inc., effective April 1.
"Rick Ketchum is one of the most widely respected regulatory authorities in the securities industry, with decades of relevant experience for our business," said Rick M. McVey, chairman and CEO of MarketAxess, in a press release Friday. "We will benefit greatly from his knowledge and insight during this period of accelerating adoption of electronic trading and significant regulatory change in global financial markets."
MarketAxess is the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, the provider of market data and post-trade services for the global fixed-income markets. Over 1,100 institutional investor and broker-dealer firms are active users of the MarketAxess trading platform, which offers global liquidity in U.S. high-grade corporate bonds, emerging markets and high-yield bonds, European bonds, U.S. agency bonds, municipal bonds, credit default swaps and other fixed-income securities.
MarketAxess said its trade volume for January 2017 totaled $121 billion, consisting of: $68.1 billion in U.S. high-grade volume, $48.7 billion in other credit volume and $4.7 billion in liquid products volume.
Ketchum, who served as FINRA's chair through August, has held a range of senior regulatory positions in the financial industry over three decades. Prior to becoming FINRA's CEO and chairman, he served as non-executive chairman of its board of governors. He previously spent 12 years at the National Association of Securities Dealers and NASDAQ, serving as president of both organizations. Prior to that, Ketchum spent 14 years at the Securities and Exchange Commission, with eight of those years as director of the division of market regulation.
"MarketAxess is at the forefront of important technology and market structure advancements for the fixed income markets," Ketchum said. "It's an exciting time for the fixed income industry as new sources of liquidity and transparency emerge to create a stronger foundation for secondary trading. I'm excited to join Rick and the rest of the MarketAxess board in advancing changes that strengthen the efficiency and liquidity of global credit markets."
