The fixed income markets have had a busy year. This is not because there have been more issues than normal, more trading has been done, or the markets have been particularly volatile. It is because the very ways in which fixed income is traded has been challenged and the old market infrastructure has been called into question by a new breed of technology: the electronic bond trading platform.

New platforms such as Brokertec and EuroMTS have big backers and all have spent the past year raising their profile and executing their first bond trades. Some of the biggest fixed income trading houses have surrendered to the fact that their businesses must change and the bond markets must follow the example of their equity cousins and offer more transparency and anonymity.