Intercontinental Exchange announced that Bank of America became the first authorized participant to use ICE ETF Hub’s FIX (Financial Information eXchange) API (application programming interface) to communicate ETF share creations and redemptions).
“Creations and redemptions for ETFs have traditionally been very complicated and required market participants to use a variety of tools to agree to baskets,” said J. Kevin McCarthy, managing director and head of BofA Securities Financing and Clearing. “ICE ETF Hub is the first platform to offer FIX access to issuers and authorized participants, which provides an end-to-end, fully electronic workflow between Bank of America’s order management system and ETF issuers’ platforms.”
ICE ETF Hub’s custom basket negotiation technology allows primary market participants to negotiate and assemble custom basket proposals in an automated environment. ICE Chat functionality was also recently launched to support communication throughout the custom basket workflow.
“We continue to believe that the standardization and automation of the ETF primary market will lead to greater efficiencies for market participants and convenience for investors,” said Samara Cohen, co-head of ETF and Index Investing at BlackRock.
“The FIX API provides the infrastructure to modernize and scale the creation and redemption process by connecting ETF authorized participants, market makers and custodians in a seamless, automated workflow. We are excited to see further progress and adoption by the industry, including the inception of a dedicated ETF working group at the FIX Trading Organization to help accelerate standardization across the ETF ecosystem,” she added.