Nasdaq (Nasdaq:NDAQ) has announced that eSpeed, the exchange group's over-the-counter platform for electronic trading in U.S. Treasury securities, successfully introduced U.S. Treasury Bill (TBills) with notional average daily volume exceeding $4 billion and daily highs exceeding $10 billion.

"The expansion of eSpeed's product set and functionality provides broker-dealers with new efficiencies, additional trading opportunities across the yield curve, and access to leading-edge services," said Joe Noviello, Head of Nasdaq eSpeed. "As customers seek trading opportunities in various asset classes and demand access to additional fixed income products, we will continue to evaluate electronic trading in products which complement our core benchmark Treasury product offering."

The U.S. Treasury auctions 1-month, 3-month and 6-month TBills weekly and 12-month TBills every four weeks. These are referred to as the Benchmark or Active Bills. eSpeed now supports these TBills, the new When-Issued (WI) and associated Roll instruments, and off-the-run TBills as they roll off from trading actively. The introduction of TBills to the electronic market is intended to provide customers with efficient price discovery, established liquidity and superior functionality to protect anonymity. In addition, the newly created electronic Roll functionality offers eSpeed customers the opportunity to efficiently transfer risk from one U.S. Treasury security to another without incurring market or legging risk.

"Nasdaq's market model creates opportunities for our customers to do more business, and our platforms and solutions have become an integral part of the global fixed income community," said Hans-Ole Jochumsen, President of Global Trading & Market Services at Nasdaq. "With the expansion of eSpeed's capabilities, we aim to provide the financial services community with access to risk capital which ultimately fosters economic growth."

As part of Nasdaq's recently formed Global Trading & Market Services (GTMS) division, the eSpeed platform is well positioned to help customers navigate the U.S. Treasury securities market with services for the full life-cycle of global fixed income trading. Nasdaq provides the financial services community with global fixed income offerings such as the NLX platform for European interest rate futures trading, strategic ownership of Nordic clearing houses and LCH.Clearnet Group, Limited, trading in Nordic corporate bonds and the exchange group's U.S. derivatives marketplaces for listing fixed income products. Nasdaq's GTMS division incorporates all transaction, clearing and settlement services in U.S. and Europe, covering cash and derivatives within the fixed income, currency, commodities and equities business.

The Nasdaq eSpeed electronic trading platform is operated by Execution Access, LLC, a member of FINRA and SIPC.