EBS BrokerTec, the electronic Forex and fixed income business of ICAP plc (LON:IAP), announces today that EBS Treasury (known previously as MyTreasury), the liquidity management platform for the corporate treasury community, has been chosen by the UK Municipal Bonds Agency (MBA) to offer electronic inter-authority lending and borrowing in the UK.
The platform will support direct borrowing and lending of cash between all UK local authorities on the back of existing EBS Treasury functionality to offer an electronic, fully disclosed, direct trading solution.
In its announcement, EBS BrokerTec notes that the inter-authority lending and borrowing market in the UK is estimated at $8.25 billion. However, it is currently executed bilaterally by telephone only.
The shift from the manual process currently in place to the EBS Treasury platform will provide UK authorities with instant and seamless access to each other, and a secure and efficient environment in which to discover the full range of borrowing opportunities and execute the preferred arrangement.
The service is set to go live in the second quarter 2016.
At a later stage, UK local authorities will also be able to access other products through the EBS Treasury platform, including its comprehensive Money Market Fund (MMF), term deposit, certificate of deposit and commercial paper products.
Justin Meadows, CEO of EBS Treasury said:
“EBS Treasury delivers a secure, electronic solution for clients managing their treasury solutions. We’re looking forward to working on expanding this service to work with UK local authorities in order to provide them with a more comprehensive and efficient way to access funding.”
Aidan Brady, CEO, MBA said:
“To date, UK local authorities have relied on manual processes for borrowing and lending cash between them. While this has worked for a long time, the move to an electronic solution will improve access to capital and have a meaningful impact on the efficiency of the process for their treasury teams. We are impressed with EBS Treasury’s technology and expertise and look forward to offering its systems to all our members soon.”