MarketAxess Holdings Inc (MKTX) — Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning, and welcome to the MarketAxess Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. For the call, Chris Concannon, Chief Executive Officer, will provide you with an update on our strategy and our trading businesses; and Ilene Fiszel Bieler, Chief Financial Officer, will review the financial results. Before I turn the call over to Chris, let me remind you that today's call may include forward-looking statements. These statements represent the company's belief regarding future events that, by their nature, are uncertain. The company's actual results and financial condition may differ materially from what is indicated in those forward-looking statements. For a discussion of some of the risks and factors that could affect the company's future results, please see the description of risk factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024. I would also direct you to read the forward-looking statement disclaimer in our quarterly earnings release, which was issued earlier this morning and is now available on our website. Now let me turn the call over to Chris.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us to review our record second quarter 2025 financial results. These strong results, as shown on Slide 3 of my strategic update, reflect a very strong operating environment and the progress we have made to transform our model to be more protocol agnostic, expand our addressable market and drive growth. We are delivering multiple protocols to solve our clients' different execution needs, and we are giving them the automation workflow tools that they need to do more with less. We delivered record automation volume and trade count with a record number of active clients during a period of increased volatility. And to accelerate our delivery of product enhancements and automation tools, we have made several important strategic hires over the last several months, including Dean Berry and Spencer Lee, both of whom will be integral to driving growth. Now turning to our results in terms of revenue generation. We are very pleased with our execution in the quarter, delivering 10% revenue growth, excluding the impact of FX. We generated these strong results on record trading volume across most product areas, surpassing $1 trillion in total credit trading volume for the first time and delivering a record $2 trillion in total rates trading volume, which drove a 12% increase in commission revenue to a record $192 million. We continue to deliver strong performance in our U.S. government bond business over the last several months. We saw a benefit from the spike in volatility around tariffs, but we are also seeing strength driven by our new hedging services, new customers driving incremental revenue and institutional client adoption of our rates algo, which now represents over 10% of our trading volume. We are in the process of expanding our RFQ business, and we are looking to continue to enhance our rates algo solution as large asset managers continue to request enhancements. Underpinning these results was strong progress with our new initiatives across our 3 strategic channels. In the client-initiated channel, we generated 38% growth in block trading ADV across U.S. credit, emerging markets and Eurobonds. In the portfolio trading channel, we generated a 69% increase in total portfolio trading ADV. And last, in the dealer-initiated channel, we generated a 40% increase in dealer-initiated ADV. In terms of expenses, we continue to show cost discipline with expenses up only 5%, excluding notables and FX as we continue to invest in the platform with a full slate of product deliveries coming in the next couple of quarters. Last, on the capital front, we have been more opportunistic with our share repurchases as we move beyond just offsetting dilution from stock-based compensation. Before I get into our results, I would like to address our July U.S. high-grade market share. While we are disappointed with the headline share, there have been significant swings in block volume moving between phone and electronic over the last several quarters. This has both helped and hurt us. We believe that this has been driven in part by the macro environment. In July, investment-grade spreads tightened significantly and the combination of tighter spreads and low volatility generally translates into more large trades getting done over the phone and an uptick in portfolio trading. Block trades equal to or larger than $5 million in size increased dramatically and represented 47% of the entire market in July, up from 42% in June. Additionally, our share of this market dropped to 10%, down from 12% in June. And so the bad news is that those large blocks move to the phone and to chat. The good news is that this is the very market that we're attacking with the recent launch of our high-touch strategy in U.S. credit on X-Pro. It's still early days, but it's the part of the market that we've been talking about targeting for some time, and we believe we will be successful in electronifying this segment of the market. Slide 4, 5 and 6 update you on how we are executing across the 3 strategic channels we are focused on to grow our market share. As Slide 5 clearly shows the key performance indicators across our platform are all green this quarter, reflecting the underlying fundamental strength of our business as well as the strong progress we are making with our new initiatives. Turning to Slide 6. In the client-initiated channel, we made strong progress with block trading with our targeted block solution now rolled out in emerging markets and Eurobonds and recently launched in U.S. credit. This is one of the most exciting areas of growth for us because we are delivering a click-to-trade solution where the trade is against a dealer acts or an indication of interest and the trade goes direct to the dealer without information leakage. This is also the largest segment of the market that remains largely phone-based. We've registered record total block trading ADV of over $5 billion across U.S. credit, emerging markets and Eurobonds. Our share of blocks in U.S. high-grade was a record 12.5%, representing an increase of almost 200 basis points and was a key driver of the year-over-year increase in our estimated market share in U.S. high-grade. Our cumulative block trading volume since the launch of our targeted block trading solution in U.S. credit, emerging markets and Eurobonds was approximately $8 billion through July 2025. Next, in the portfolio trading channel, which is a very important part of the market, we generated record levels of total portfolio trading ADV with a strong increase in U.S. high-grade estimated market share on record ADV as well as record ADV in U.S. high yield and Eurobonds. U.S. high-grade portfolio trading market share was over 19% in the quarter, up 370 basis points over the prior year. Last, in the dealer-initiated channel, we are beginning to see progress as we prepare to launch a new Mid-X solution in September in U.S. credit. Dealer RFQ ADV was $1.6 billion with record ADV in municipal bonds. Mid-X total volume hit a new quarterly record of over $9 billion with record volume in emerging markets and Eurobonds. We are very excited about the launch of our new Mid-X solution in a few weeks. It's a very streamlined midpoint matching solution for dealers using our award-winning CP+ for pricing. Slide 7 highlights the strong growth in our international product areas, where we are executing across all 3 strategic channels. The strong growth that we generated across emerging markets and Eurobonds was driven by multiple levers at different stages of growth with different fee profiles. Growth across block trading, portfolio trading and dealer-initiated activity drove our total volume growth to over 20%. And this strong increase in trading volumes on robust market volumes and share gains was accompanied by a small 3% decline in fee capture, principally driven by protocol mix, delivering commission revenue growth of 17%. We believe that our global presence in EM local markets will be a key driver of our future growth. The opportunity with local EM markets is enormous, as indicated on the right side of the slide, with 85% of the EM market made up of local currency corporates and sovereigns compared to just 15% hard currency corporates and sovereigns. And the estimated ADVs for both hard currency and local markets combined are greater than the ADVs for U.S. credit markets. Our estimate is that most local market trades take place with onshore clients, while only a small percentage of our trades are taking place with onshore clients. We believe that this is a large growth opportunity for us. We are also focused on facilitating global investing in local markets. As you saw with our press release last week, we just recently executed the first Indian Government Bond Trade Electronically. MarketAxess is the first fully electronic trading solution for foreign portfolio investors, and this launch further deepens our global EM franchise. I would like to thank our clients, BlackRock and Standard Chartered for their support in executing the first trade. In summary, we are pleased with our execution in the second quarter, where we benefited from a very supportive market backdrop and delivered strong growth across our new initiatives. The July share numbers in U.S. high-grade were disappointing, but we believe that the solution we are bringing to the market will be successful, and we now have the right team in place to help us accelerate growth in the coming quarters. Now let me turn the call over to Ilene to review our financials.

Thank you, Chris. Turning to our results. On Slide 10, we provide a summary of our second quarter financials. We delivered 11% revenue growth to a record $219 million, which includes a $2 million benefit from foreign currency fluctuations. Excluding the impact of FX, revenue growth was 10%. We reported an 11% increase in diluted earnings per share to $1.91 or $2 per share, excluding notable items, representing an increase of 16%. Notable items in the quarter included $4 million or $0.08 per share in repositioning charges and our expenses in the employee compensation and benefits line and a $600,000 or $0.01 per share acquisition-related charge included in other income. My comments on our results from this point forward will largely exclude the impact of notable items and will be on a non-GAAP basis where applicable. Looking at each of our revenue lines in turn. Commission revenue increased 12% to a record $192 million, driven by strong market volumes on an increase in volatility in the quarter as well as the strong progress we have made with our new initiatives in 2025 across our 3 strategic channels. Just over 50% of the incremental $20 million in revenue generated in the second quarter of '25 versus the second quarter of '24 was from block trading, portfolio trading and dealer-initiated activity. Services revenue increased 7% to a record $28 million. Information Services revenue of $13 million increased 4%. Info Services growth was 1%, excluding the impact of FX. Growth in the quarter was lower due to data deals that were pushed to the second half of 2025, but the pipeline remains strong with demand increasing from systematic funds and dealers. Post-trade services revenue of $11 million increased 7% versus the prior year or 1% excluding the impact of FX. Here, too, we see a healthy pipeline of new contracts and expect pricing increases in the second half of the year. Technology Services revenue of $4 million increased 16%, driven by higher license and connectivity fees and the addition of RFQ Hub. Total other income increased approximately $1 million, driven by an increase in FX gains of approximately $2 million in the current quarter, partially offset by lower interest income. For modeling purposes, with the closing of RFQ Hub in mid-May and consolidation of their revenues and expenses, the earnings of unconsolidated affiliate line will go away in 3Q, but there is a performance incentive plan underway with our noncontrolling shareholders, which had a noncash impact of approximately $900,000 in the current quarter in other net. The effective tax rate was 26.9%, up from 24.8% in the prior year, reflecting the increased accrual for the uncertain tax position reserve we established in the first quarter of '25. On Slide 11, we provide more detail on our commission revenue and our fee capture. Total commission revenue increased 12% to a record $192 million. We experienced 12% growth in credit variable commission revenue with U.S. credit up 10%, record emerging markets up 17% and record Eurobonds up 19%. These strong results were driven by market volume strength and progress with our new initiatives, partially offset by lower fee per million. The reduction in total credit fee capture year-over-year was principally due to protocol mix. On Slide 12, we provide a summary of our operating expenses. Excluding notable items, second quarter operating expenses of $124 million increased 6% compared to the prior year, 5% excluding FX. The increase in expenses was driven principally by higher employee compensation and technology and communication costs as we continue to strike the right balance between investing to drive future growth and continuing to drive increased efficiency. Higher employee comp and benefits was driven by the strategic hires we have made over the last several months that we expect to help drive our growth as well as higher variable incentive compensation driven by the strong increase in revenue in the quarter. Headcount was 881, up only 2% from 864 in the prior year and up 1% from 870 at the end of the first quarter of '25. We are reconfirming our full year 2025 expense guidance and expect to be at the low end of the previously stated expense range of $501 million to $521 million on an ex notable non-GAAP basis or on a GAAP basis, $505 million to $525 million. On Slide 13, we provide an update on our capital management and cash flow. Our balance sheet continues to be strong with cash, cash equivalents and corporate bond and U.S. treasury investments totaling $621 million as of June 30, down from $699 million at the end of 2024. We generated $360 million in free cash flow over the trailing 12 months, an increase of 5% over last quarter. We repurchased 380,000 shares year-to-date through July 2025 for a total of $80 million, including 168,000 shares repurchased during the second quarter at a cost of $37 million. As of July 31, 2025, $145 million remains on the Board's share repurchase authorization. We believe we are striking the right balance of investing to drive future growth, while at the same time being disciplined stewards of capital. Now let me turn the call back to Chris for his closing comments.

Thanks, Ilene. In summary, on Slide 14, we made solid progress with the key new initiatives that will drive improved market share in U.S. credit in the remaining quarters of 2025. We are continuing to increase the pace of innovation and execution, and we will continue to enhance our delivery of new product enhancements in the coming months. We are pleased with the performance of the platform in the quarter, which benefited from a more favorable macro environment and our new initiatives, which provided over half of our incremental revenue in the quarter. The launch of our targeted block trading solution drove record levels of block trading across U.S. high-grade, emerging markets and Eurobonds. We delivered record portfolio trading ADV and our market share in U.S. credit portfolio trading increased 240 basis points. 40% growth in dealer-initiated ADV reflects our increasing focus on this important channel. We generated record Mid-X volumes in emerging markets and Eurobonds, and we look forward to the launch of Mid-X for U.S. credit in September. We have made several very important strategic hires over the last several months, including Dean Berry and Spencer Lee that will be integral to driving future growth. In summary, we expect to drive growth namely in U.S. credit in the coming quarters through continued progress across the client-initiated portfolio trading and dealer-initiated channels, combined with our expanded leadership team. Now we would be happy to open the line for questions.

I want to see if you could give some more details on the progress to date on the new initiatives, maybe some color just in terms of where you are from client penetration and adoption perspective, then the outlook you just mentioned for the rest of the year. And then if you could help us reconcile the progress you've made, the momentum we saw in 2Q versus the July volumes, specifically in market share in U.S. high-grade, that would be helpful as well.

Sure. Thanks, Chris. At the beginning of the year, we committed to focusing on three key areas: client-initiated activities, especially portfolio trading, the dealer-to-dealer business, and block trades. As of July, our IGPT business has grown by 47%. Our market share in portfolio trading has increased by 340 basis points. Year-to-date, our investment-grade dealer business is up 42%, and our market share in dealer-to-dealer transactions has risen by 100 basis points. Additionally, we will launch Mid-X in September, which will provide a mid-market matching solution in the dealer-to-dealer space. In high yield, our portfolio trading business has also seen a 42% growth year-to-date, with our market share in high-yield portfolio trading up by 100 basis points. Overall, we are experiencing growth this year across these segments, with particularly exciting developments in our block activity. We've observed growth in the markets where our block solution has been deployed, including Eurobonds, emerging markets, and U.S. credit. Year-to-date, our block activity has increased by over 20%, and our block share has grown due to these solutions. With our three initiatives, we are achieving outstanding performance, and we are looking forward to what lies ahead in these areas. We are enthusiastic about the Mid-X launch for U.S. credit, which we believe will positively influence our dealer-to-dealer growth rates. This is scheduled to go live in September. We are also eager to expand our block trading solution in investment grade and high yield, which has recently been introduced to several users, and we will continue to expand that user base in the coming weeks. All of this is taking place alongside upgrades to our technology, with the new tech rollout in Europe, including X-Pro going live this month. We also have some exciting new features to be released in the upcoming months on our portfolio trading platform. Overall, we are pleased with the year-to-date progress of these three initiatives. Regarding July, I want to discuss the market share numbers, particularly in investment grade. The market dynamics in July were similar to those we saw in February, marked by very narrow spreads and low volatility. In such market conditions, we usually observe an increase in portfolio trading and mid-market matching solutions. Indeed, portfolio trading volumes rose in July to represent 13% of the overall market. Interestingly, we typically notice an uptick in mid-market matching solutions as dealers utilize that higher portfolio trading volume. We also made some progress in block trading, but the primary competitor we faced in July was phone and chat. We've observed the phone and chat block market grow by 400 basis points to 47% market share, indicating a significant increase in that sector, which typically relies on those communication methods. We are actively addressing this segment of the block market and making promising strides with our block solutions in Eurobonds, emerging markets, and U.S. high-grade. While July wasn't an outstanding month for us, one month doesn't define a quarter or a year. The market dynamics in July favored larger portfolio trades, and mid-market matching solutions generally perform well in a stable low-volatility environment.

Chris, I was hoping you could just update us or maybe just elaborate on some of the drivers of the fee per million decline in the quarter. It didn't fall too much sequentially, but it was the lowest it's been in a few years. So just wondering kind of what the drivers were there and then what your expectations are going forward? It looks like it popped up a little bit in the month of July. So any color on fee per million would be great.

Thank you for your question, Patrick. This likely isn't surprising, but our recent fee per million trends have been consistent with what we've shared before. As you noted, we saw a slight increase from June to July, which was primarily influenced by high-grade duration extending to about 8.9 years. This was beneficial and helped counterbalance the increase we saw in portfolio trading volumes. To break it down, you could think of it as a $4 benefit from the duration extension versus a $2 impact from the rise in portfolio trading volumes. Looking at it from a year-over-year perspective, and also to some extent quarter-over-quarter, the key factor is the introduction of new protocols. Increased portfolio trading tends to apply some pressure on fee per million. However, as we observed in July, when high-grade duration increases, it works in our favor. Overall, the fluctuations you noticed were driven by the mix of protocols and products in play.

Chris, you provided a comprehensive overview of the initiatives in response to Chris Allen's question. I would appreciate it if you could elaborate on the U.S. blocks. I understand it's still early, but it's also your most significant initiative for the year. You mentioned specific timelines and how quickly you expect to gain traction. Could you discuss how the EM and Eurobonds are contributing to this? Additionally, how should we approach the timelines to effectively impact your market share?

Sure, I’m glad to discuss block activity. We’re very pleased with the success we’re experiencing in both emerging markets and Eurobonds from a block perspective. Our block volume year-to-date has increased by over 20%. Notably, in the second quarter, block trading in investment-grade saw substantial growth of 40%, and we captured block market share, reaching as high as 12.5% during the quarter. It’s exciting to observe this in our U.S. investment-grade offering. In the emerging markets and Eurobonds, we continue to find success with blocks, with our EM block volume increasing by 27% in Q2, totaling $1.6 billion in EM block trades. This is certainly making a difference, as we are witnessing changes in trader behavior, which is encouraging when introducing a block solution. It’s important to highlight that the other half of the market largely consists of blocks throughout the credit market. We are thrilled to finally enter that phone and chat market. Furthermore, we have made significant strides, particularly in Eurobonds where we are gaining market share due to blocks; our block volume in July was up by 54% in Eurobonds. We are receiving a very positive response from the market regarding block volume in both emerging markets and Eurobonds. In the U.S., while clients are starting to enjoy the advantages of the block tool, it is still early in our rollout. We aim to bring more dealer content into the U.S. market and are collaborating closely with dealers across the U.S. credit market, as this dealer content is essential for attracting block trade solutions. I’m excited about the progress we’re making and what lies ahead. Our strong dealer content in emerging markets and Eurobonds has significantly contributed to the success of the block tool, and I anticipate similar outcomes when our U.S. credit content becomes more comprehensive. We are seeing exceptional performance where we have this content and are very optimistic about our overall progress in the U.S.

Could you provide more detail on the blocks, starting with Europe? It sounds like there has been great success there, particularly with the growth. How much do you credit that success to the new block solution? Can you describe the adoption process in that region? In the U.S., it appears to be early days, and you mentioned that the rollout is ongoing. Can you share your expectations regarding the pace of the rollout in the upcoming months and quarters? What steps are you taking to increase adoption, and how will you assess early traction? Lastly, what would success look like in the U.S. for this new high-touch solution by the end of the year and into 2026?

Sure. Again, on the block size, our progress in Eurobonds, in particular, was certainly heavily driven by our block trading pickup. As I mentioned, in the quarter, block trading grew 31%. So we're seeing that. And here in July, in Eurobonds, our block trading grew an additional 34%. So we're certainly seeing that impact. And it's really partly because of the content that we have on the platform in Eurobonds, where we probably have most of the enriched dealer content on the platform. When it comes to EM, we also are seeing that same growth rate in EM. Again, the EM blocks have been driven partially by our new targeted solution, but also by the willingness of clients to use our all-to-all Open Trading for block size liquidity. So part of the growth has been a clients' change in behavior to put large-sized orders, particularly in EM local markets into our platform to access that unique liquidity and the all-to-all solution. With regard to the rollout here in the U.S., it's only been a handful of traders that we've rolled the solution out. We plan to increase that number in the coming weeks as we continue to onboard dealer content. It's an important part of the market. As I think about how we've addressed the market historically, we've really addressed the market, clients' needs when they have an identified set of bonds and they come to market and request price. And that's been the traditional means of adoption of electronic trading. What's exciting about this new part of the market, it's where dealers are really pushing their content or their inventory into clients and clients make decisions about selection of bonds as a result of that inventory being pushed to them. So this is a part of the market that we have historically not engaged in. And it's really opening up 2 things: one, a much better relationship with our dealer community. But two, it's really getting into areas for investors to see content in a more efficient way than over chat or phone and really ingest that content to impact their portfolio selection. That's something new for us, something that's been rolled out here. But it's an exciting part of the market because largely the block market, particularly in U.S. investment grade, is driven by this inventory push out to clients, and it's exciting to finally being tapped into that part of the market and pushing dealer inventory or dealer access into the hands of investors.

I would like to discuss the PT market for a moment, especially considering your comments about how PT tends to pull back during certain conditions or performs well during low volatility. I previously thought the opposite was true, but we have observed that PT penetration in both U.S. credit, including high-grade and high-yield, has consistently increased this year, even during challenging market periods. Can you share how you're observing your clients use PT in different ways? Could this potentially become a much larger segment of the market than we initially thought a year or two ago? I would appreciate your insights on this.

Sure. Well, there's definitely a pattern that we've seen the majority of the pattern is during times of low vol, even intraday low vol or weekly low vol, higher use of PT. It's easier for dealers to price a PT. It's certainly easier for clients to evaluate PT pricing. So there's definitely a trend. You do point out correctly in some of the high volatility months of the second quarter, we did see clients make use of portfolio trades, particularly in high yield, where they were obviously attracted by the liquidity and the ability to move large notional sums of bonds. So we did see ironically, the pickup in PT and high yield during some volatile times. I think that was largely driven by demand for cash by a number of the clients. But the continued use of PT is obviously an important part of the market. It's certainly we've been growing our PT market share as a result of rolling out new portfolio trading solutions, and we'll continue to address that part of the market because it's such an important market share driver. There have been a number of very large-sized portfolio trades in the month of July, large being over $1 billion. We've seen those portfolio trades be on platform, but also be off platform. So there's still a number of in these market environments, higher levels of clients coming to market with PT. And then there's obviously some very outsized PT trades that we've seen in the market from month-to-month happen somewhere in the size of $4 billion to $5 billion in PT sizes. Again, we remind everyone the market opportunity in PT is quite small relative to the bigger part of the market. We think it's in the zone of $50 million in U.S. IG in terms of revenue. These are priced at very low rates, and they're really facilitation trading solutions for clients. So exciting about market share movement in PT, but again, very low revenue opportunities in the overall PT market.

Chris, in your prepared remarks, you talked about a number of new strategic hires. I was wondering if you could expand on that a little bit. What are these individuals tasked with doing? What are their primary KPIs you're going to be measuring? How do you think they'll be kind of moving the needle? And if you're successful in these hires, when do you think that might translate into results?

Sure. Again, very excited about our new hires, some that have started and some are due to start in the coming months. So Spencer Lee is really overseeing all of our product in the U.S. credit market. So it's exciting to see the impact he's already had on our products and our product priorities and organizing our efforts around portfolio trading solutions. He certainly has a known brand among our clients and a known brand among the dealer community. He has been building out solutions for really larger trade sizes in his prior role. So we are excited about his input and his knowledge around our block trading solution and expect him to obviously focus on portfolio trading, block trading and our dealer solutions in the coming months. Dean Berry will be joining in late September. So we're excited about his entry to MarketAxess. He has a breadth of knowledge across markets, data and analytics and certainly skilled in M&A as well. So we're excited about Dean joining us in the coming months.

Maybe I could just ask a question on the muni business. I know it's still small, obviously, but can you just kind of update us on market share progress? What else do you need to do in terms of capability or new product rollout to kind of find the next leg of market share growth there? And then anything you can also share just regarding some of the movement on kind of implied fee capture within that bucket and how you expect that to progress moving forward?

Sure. We're very excited about our muni business. The year-over-year growth in munis has been exciting. Certainly, the Q2 activity that we just published has been up quite dramatically. Our overall ADV, we hit records in Q2. Our market volume was up 23%. And what's exciting about 2Q and current performance is a lot of that growth has been driven by our tax-exempt business, which is a very unique part of the business. Within the tax-exempt business, we were up 34% in terms of record volume. And here in July, which was a much lighter month for the muni market, we were up 12% in our tax-exempt business. So we continue to see excitement around electronification of the muni market. We've rolled out portfolio trading to our muni market investors, which is an important tool for them. And a key component to that muni market is also our all-to-all solution where clients are able to access unique liquidity across that muni market. So we continue to make investments in the muni market. Our most recent investment was our CP+ for munis. The feedback on that data feed is quite exciting. Certainly, in the second quarter, clients noted that our CP+ for munis outperformed the other real-time market data solutions in the muni market. So certainly, we see further adoption as a result of that data and its performance in the market. So overall, pretty excited about our muni business. Our fee per million actually in July was up as a result of the activities across that market. So we're certainly happy about the direction of travel of fee per million overall. We also have a sizable dealer business in the muni market as well. And seeing that grow not only in the second quarter, but also here in July, it grew about 38%. So overall, I'm pleased with the muni progress we've made year-to-date and year-over-year. July was obviously a slow month from an overall secondary market turnover for us, but certainly an exciting progress across those initiatives that we continue to talk about.

This is actually Aditya filling in for Alex. So I appreciate all the updates on block trading and PT. I was hoping to just talk about the firm's capital return priorities and importantly, where M&A stacks up in the mix.

Sure. Happy to discuss that. I think, as you know, MarketAxess over time has always really been driven by and focused a lot on the organic opportunity ahead of us, which we know we still think is really quite significant. And so if you think about the priorities and our capital priorities, at the same time, you've also seen us, and we talked about this a bit in the prepared remarks. You've also seen us doing more share repurchases and being really opportunistic in that space as well. And at the same time, you've also seen us do a number of bolt-on acquisitions, right? You saw Pragma, obviously, which we've talked about. We, in the past, did muni brokers, and we just had a discussion about our muni business. We had the acquisition related to LQA rates and then obviously, most recently, RFQ-hub. So you've seen us do a number of bolt acquisitions. And I would actually talk about our capital priorities exactly in the way that I just described them to you, which is, first, investing organically to really capture that market opportunity we have in the global fixed income market, continuing to return capital to investors through dividends and more opportunistic share repurchases as you've seen us do. And then I would say bolt-on acquisitions like I just discussed.

I would like to emphasize, as Ilene mentioned, that our organic opportunity is significant and very appealing, leading to considerable accretion. Our balance sheet is well positioned to pursue mergers and acquisitions. Additionally, with the recent changes in our executive team at MarketAxess, we have the capacity to engage in M&A at an executive level. I am enthusiastic about our ability to approach the market with a strong balance sheet and a fresh perspective as we seek out opportunities in the M&A space.

Can you dig more into your performance in Europe? It looks like volumes are up 21% year-to-date. I know part of that is from a larger pie, but it also seems like there's been some pretty good share gains lately. What's driving those share gains? Who is it coming from? And are there any particular protocols or customer channels that have been particularly strong?

Sure. Thanks for that question. The Eurobond market has been a very exciting market in 2025. Overall market activity has continued to grow. Our investor base is quite exciting and certainly adopting a number of our new initiatives. Our block trading in the second quarter was up sizably. Our portfolio trading was also up dramatically in the second quarter. And just in July alone, our PT volume was up 64%. So we're delivering on all those initiatives, blocks, portfolio trading and the dealer initiative and client adoption is high. We're seeing outsized growth rates in those markets and market share increases. So Eurobonds happens to be a place where we have a robust block solution with all the dealer content. We have a number of key investors using that solution. We have a robust portfolio trading tool with lots of analytics and pre-trade analysis for traders to use our portfolio trading tool. And then our dealer business with the full rollout of Mid-X across the Eurobond business, we're seeing growth rates there in the dealer business as well. So it's really where we're firing on all 3 initiatives that we're seeing that very attractive growth rate across the Eurobond business.

Just wanted to follow up on the previous question around the hires and management changes. Just curious if you're done with that process, if there are more to go and the team that you have together is the one that you think can execute upon the goals you've outlined for this year and beyond.

Thanks for the question. Super excited about the team we have and with Dean's arrival, the team will have as early as late September. So we're excited about what that capacity brings certainly to our product knowledge and the practical knowledge of the product team. Spencer Lee came from an EMS. And as I've mentioned on these calls before, as we expand our protocols and become more protocol agnostic, we look and feel more like an EMS to our clients. So that's a key ingredient and a key skill set that he brings. He also sat in the desk of a trader. So he has that buy-side trader knowledge that he brings to MarketAxess. And those 2 components are very exciting for our product knowledge and what we're able to put out in terms of product to our investor clients. And Dean obviously has a breadth of international experience, a breadth of a large P&L management experience, M&A experience and obviously, a product and data analytics experience. So again, really helpful entries to MarketAxess as we kind of move on to our next journey in this market and attack what I'm most excited about is really that large dealer-to-client block trade market and having the additional help across the globe is going to be quite exciting here in the coming months.

Just wanted to ask about portfolio trading in the month of July. And I know it's just a month, I don't want to overemphasize. Just curious what was driving the decline year-on-year in U.S. credit portfolio trading share. I think that was down about 160 basis points to around 15.6% U.S. credit PT share. Just curious what macro environment might we see your PT share expand. Maybe talk about some of the initiative steps you can take to drive that meaningfully higher. And then over time, what might success look like for you in portfolio trading in U.S. credit?

We've been putting significant resources into our portfolio trading tool for a while, and we're very enthusiastic about the progress we've made so far this year. Portfolio trading can be highly dependent on the clients, with some clients participating in large portfolio trades on a quarterly basis. This client-specific nature can significantly influence our market share, especially in months like July. In July, we actually increased our market share in high yield, seeing a rise of 70 basis points in our portfolio trading market share. We continue to see strong demand from clients for our portfolio trading solution. Moving forward, clients are seeking more pre-trade analytics to better analyze and optimize their portfolios before submission. Integrating our proprietary market data into the portfolio trading tool will aid clients in deciding what to include in their portfolios. Additionally, we are collaborating with dealers when presenting portfolios to clients, tapping into the growing market where dealers are looking to move large baskets of bonds. This dual-focused platform is an exciting advancement in the portfolio trading arena.

Thanks, everyone, for dialing in today. We're excited about what's to come in the following months, and we'll talk to you again on our following quarterly call. Thank you.