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Date

Wednesday, April 29, 2026 at 9:30 a.m. ET

Call participants

  • Chief Executive Officer — William E. Hult
  • Chief Financial Officer — Sara Hassan Furber
  • Head of Investor Relations — Ashley Neil Serrao

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Takeaways

  • Revenue -- $618 million, up 21.2% year over year on a reported basis and 17.5% on a constant currency basis.
  • International revenue growth -- 29% increase, with international business contributing nearly 60% of overall revenue growth.
  • Adjusted EBITDA margin -- 55%, expanding 101 basis points over 2025 full-year margin.
  • Trading revenue -- Grew 23%, comprised of 25% growth in variable trading revenues and 14% growth in fixed trading revenues.
  • Other revenues -- $10 million, up 56% year over year, principally from digital initiatives related to the Canton network.
  • Market data revenue -- Down approximately 5% year over year due to a timing shift in dataset delivery under the amended LSEG agreement.
  • Rates business revenue -- Record level, with strong organic growth across swaps, global government bonds, and mortgages.
  • Global swaps revenue -- Up over 45% year over year, driven by record revenues in the U.S., Europe, APAC, and emerging markets.
  • Interest rate swaps market share -- Core risk market share up 190 basis points year over year; total market share up from 21% to 24.1%.
  • Global credit revenue -- Achieved double-digit growth; European credit, EM credit, and credit derivatives offset municipal bond weakness.
  • U.S. credit retail channel -- Revenues declined over 20% year over year, primarily due to more attractive yields outside U.S. Credit.
  • Institutional U.S. Treasuries market share -- Exceeded 50% for the eighth consecutive quarter versus the main electronic competitor.
  • ETFs revenue -- Over 35% year-over-year growth; surpassed $4 trillion in notional traded since launch, with over $1 trillion in the trailing twelve months.
  • Automation (AIX) activity -- Average daily ETF trades increased over 70% year over year, with double-digit growth in both European and U.S. ETFs.
  • Adjusted expenses -- Increased 20.2% reported and 15.3% constant currency, with technology and communication costs up 37.7% year over year.
  • Cash position -- Ended the quarter with $1.9 billion in cash and cash equivalents and over $1 billion in trailing twelve month free cash flow, up approximately 31% year over year.
  • Canton coin holdings -- Held $1.6 billion in Canton coins with a fair value of approximately $243 million.
  • Dividend -- Quarterly dividend declared at $0.14 per share for Class A and B, up 17% year over year.
  • Share repurchases -- Approximately 483,000 shares repurchased for $51 million, with $523 million in remaining buyback authorization.
  • Expense guidance -- Adjusted expenses projected to trend towards the top half of the $1.1 billion to $1.16 billion range for 2026.

Summary

Tradeweb Markets (TW +5.13%) reported record quarterly revenue, driven by robust client activity and significant international expansion, with reported revenue up 21.2% and pronounced contributions from Europe, APAC, and emerging markets. Management attributed the performance to increased electronification across asset classes, particularly in swaps, where market share gains and automation adoption were significant, and highlighted 45%+ year-over-year growth in global swaps revenue. The company reported its automation offerings such as AIX and the TARA AI assistant are key strategic differentiators, deepening platform engagement and workflow penetration among clients. Capital returns remained active with a 17% dividend increase and continued share repurchases, while investments in technology and digital assets like the Canton network align with multi-year growth priorities and durable margin expansion. Expense growth was driven primarily by ongoing investment in data, technology, FX, and the launch of the new headquarters, all underpinned by a philosophy of balancing margin expansion with innovation and platform growth.

  • Tradeweb Markets emphasized its strategic focus on cross-regional trading as U.S. clients contributed over 20% of international product revenue growth, evidencing global franchise scale.
  • CEO Hult stated, "Our request-for-market in Europe reached roughly 45% of flow; in-comp moved north of 80%," highlighting resilient electronic liquidity and protocol adoption.
  • AI-related product initiatives—including the imminent launch of TARA and AI Price 2.0—are positioned as drivers of workflow automation and future revenue opportunities.
  • Emerging markets revenues climbed to 6% of total, up from just over 1% in 2022, and were described as a "multiyear growth opportunity." within swaps and credit.
  • ICD posted record revenues and balances, with international expansion—especially in Asia—highlighted as an area of near-term client focus following regulatory approval in Singapore.
  • Management communicated that, despite a tougher volatility comparison, April 2026 average daily volumes are ahead of April 2025, though average daily revenues are trending lower by a low single-digit percentage, pointing to the recurring nature of client activity on the platform.
  • In digital assets and tokenization, Tradeweb Markets reported $10 million in quarterly revenue from commercial activity on the Canton network, and reaffirmed its role as "active via tokenized repo activity on Canton" as the industry begins to adopt on-chain settlement.
  • The company disclosed continued investments in prediction markets (Kalshi) and U.S. residential mortgage trading (Maxx), reflecting expansion into adjacent and frontier markets, which management described as "disciplined bets."

Industry glossary

  • AIX (Automated Intelligent Execution): Tradeweb Markets' proprietary workflow automation solution used to optimize trade execution protocols.
  • RFM (Request-for-Market): An electronic protocol enabling clients to request actionable two-way prices or liquidity from dealers, enhancing trading efficiency and transparency.
  • AllTrade: Tradeweb Markets' proprietary all-to-all trading platform, facilitating anonymous trading access among institutional clients and dealers.
  • ICD: Institutional Cash Distributors, a cash investment platform acquired by Tradeweb Markets, integrated for cross-selling cash and fixed-income products.
  • TRACE: The Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine; the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (FINRA) system for reporting OTC fixed income transactions.
  • Canton network: A distributed ledger infrastructure supporting digital asset activity and tokenization efforts, including projects related to on-chain settlements for fixed income products.
  • Snap+: Enhanced dealer selection tool within Tradeweb Markets' platform, leveraging historical and real-time trading data to optimize inquiry targeting.
  • DV01: Dollar value of a one basis point move; a measure of risk in fixed income portfolios and swaps, indicating price change for a given rate shift.
  • RateFins: Technology referenced for planned future integration into Tradeweb Markets' crypto execution business to provide advanced spread functionality.

Full Conference Call Transcript

William E. Hult: Thanks, Ashley. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our first quarter earnings call. We delivered another record quarter, surpassing $600 million in quarterly revenue for the first time in our history. As I noted last quarter, we entered the year with a constructive macro backdrop featuring strong private sector intermediation, robust global issuance, and elevated levels of market debate alongside early signs of diversification away from U.S. assets. That backdrop evolved quickly. What began as a market conversation centered on the pace of rate cuts in 2026 shifted meaningfully as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East drove an increase in oil prices and renewed concerns around inflation across the global economy.

Our clients actively repositioned risk and navigated this dynamic environment, driving record quarterly average daily volumes on the platform, including 17 of our 22 products that we report in our monthly activity report. While periods of elevated volatility tend to naturally drive wider bid-ask spreads, markets remained orderly throughout the quarter. Our clients engaged with the platform at record levels and increasingly capitalized on our automation solution, AIX. Equally important, our dealer partners flourished as their continued and consistent two-way electronic liquidity benefited clients during heightened market stress. As we move into the aftermath of the volatility spike, history has shown that activity can moderate as clients digest the forward outlook.

More importantly, this macro shock has left our clients in a healthy position, and we expect them to resume trading actively across our global franchise. Diving into the first quarter, strong client activity and a risk-on environment drove 21.2% year-over-year revenue growth on a reported basis. Our international business continued to set new records with 29% revenue growth as our strategic initiatives across Europe, APAC, and EM continued to pay off. We continued to balance investing for growth and profitability as adjusted EBITDA margins expanded by 40 basis points relative to 2025. Our international business really continued to fire on all cylinders for us this quarter, contributing to nearly 60% of our overall revenue growth.

Importantly, that strength was broad based, as we saw double-digit growth across all four asset classes with our international clients. Even though international clients are naturally focused on non-U.S. products, they are increasingly trading outside their home markets. That really speaks to the strength of our platform. To put some numbers around it, our international clients drove 60% of our dollar swap growth, and we also saw double-digit contributions from them across U.S. Treasuries, cash credit, CDS, and ETFs. On the product side internationally, we had double-digit growth across European, Aussie, and Japanese government bonds. European swaps were a standout, but we also saw a very strong performance across APAC and EM swaps.

It was not just rates, as our European credit and CDS produced strong revenue growth. Not to be overshadowed, we also saw over 20% growth in both our European ETF and repo businesses. On the flip side, it is not just international clients driving this activity; our U.S. clients are increasingly active in international products, contributing over 20% of our international product revenue growth. So when you step back, what you are really seeing is the flywheel of the platform at work, where our global clients are trading across regions and asset classes, and we believe this advantage will only grow as we expand our presence across regions. Turning to slide five.

Our Rates business produced a record revenue quarter driven by continued organic growth across swaps, global government bonds, and mortgages. Record Credit revenues were led by strength across global corporate bonds and credit derivatives. Money Markets revenue growth was led by record quarterly revenues across global repos and ICD. Equities also produced record revenues, led by growth in global ETFs and equity derivatives. Other revenues grew over 56% year over year driven by our digital assets initiatives. Finally, Market Data revenues were down approximately 5% year over year driven by a timing shift in how certain historical data sets are delivered under our amended LSEG agreement.

Recall, we recorded $8 million in January 2025 tied to the delivery of datasets to LSEG. The revenue recognition of these datasets in 2026 shifted to $2 million being recognized in the first month of every quarter. Adjusting for the timing difference, Market Data revenues grew 13% year over year driven by growth in our recently renewed LSEG market data contract and proprietary data products. Turning to slide six, I will provide a brief update on two of our focus areas, U.S. Treasuries and ETFs, and then I will dig deeper into U.S. Credit and global interest rate swaps. Starting with U.S. Treasuries, after eight months of below-average intraday volatility, we saw a significant pickup in March intraday volatility.

While March volatility rose over 50% from the December lows, it was still nearly 40% below what we saw in April 2025. Our first quarter market share of 22% drove record revenues, up nearly 10% year over year as double-digit revenue growth in our institutional channel was partially offset by weaker retail trends. While market share was down year over year mainly due to lower wholesale market share, we remain optimistic on a reacceleration in our U.S. Treasury business as we penetrate additional parts of the voice market, coupled with continued strong government debt issuance. Our competitive position remains strong. On a relative basis, we exceeded 50% share for the eighth consecutive quarter in electronic institutional U.S.

Treasuries versus our main electronic competitor. Wholesale remains a strategic priority with continued focus on expanding our liquidity network, deepening client relationships, and driving growth through differentiated protocols and products across our integrated platform. Turning to Equities. This year marks the ten-year anniversary of our institutional U.S. ETF platform, an important milestone that reflects both the evolution of the ETF ecosystem and Tradeweb Markets Inc.'s role at its center. Since launch, our platform has scaled significantly, surpassing $4 trillion in notional traded including more than $1 trillion in the past twelve months alone.

What began with just a handful of participants a decade ago has grown into a broad and diverse global network of close to 200 institutional clients and over 20 dealers. Our ETF business posted revenue growth in excess of 35% year over year as we continue to deepen integration with our clients coupled with a pickup in market volatility. Our AIX automation solution continues to be a key differentiator with our ETF clients, with average daily trades increasing over 70% year over year with double-digit growth across European and U.S. ETFs. Our efforts to broaden our equity presence beyond our flagship ETF franchise continue to pay off with record institutional equity derivative revenues up nearly 20% year over year.

Looking ahead, the pipeline remains strong as the benefits of our electronic solutions continue to resonate with our clients. We believe we are well positioned to capitalize on the long-term secular ETF growth story, not just in equities, but across our fixed income business. Shifting to Global Credit, on slide seven. Double-digit revenue growth for Global Credit was driven by strong double-digit revenue growth in European credit, EM credit, and credit derivatives, which more than offset weakness in municipal bonds. U.S.

Credit produced low single-digit revenue growth led by strong double-digit revenue growth in our institutional business, but partially offset by continued weakness in our retail corporate credit channel, where revenues were down over 20% year over year, primarily reflecting the better relative yields our clients were getting outside of U.S. Credit. U.S. Credit remains a key growth priority, and we are focused on expanding our penetration within RFQ markets to complement our leadership in portfolio and session-based trading. Despite more than a decade of innovation, RFQ continues to be the primary execution protocol for institutional clients in U.S. Credit, driven by its transparency and competitive pricing dynamics.

However, clients are often reluctant to expose larger trades broadly given the trade-off between minimizing information leakage and achieving optimal pricing. In response, we are focused on enhancing workflows that better align with client needs. To that end, we have continued to invest in our enhanced dealer selection tool, Snap+, which enables our clients to dynamically target the most likely to engage and win a given inquiry based on both historical and real-time trading data. This innovation builds on our broader strategy of expanding the range of pre-trade, execution, and post-trade solutions we offer. We remain focused on the block market with overall U.S.

Credit block share up 20 basis points year over year in the first quarter, with block average daily volume growth of over 30% year over year across IG and High Yield. Our volume growth was driven by continued adoption of our portfolio trading, RFQ, and sessions protocols. Institutional RFQ average daily volume grew over 30% year over year, with double-digit growth in both IG and High Yield. Our efforts to expand into RFQ are seeing continued signs of success with our RFQ share of overall TRACE up over 50 basis points year over year. Portfolio trading produced record average daily volume, increasing over 30% year over year with double-digit growth across both U.S. and international PT.

AllTrade had a strong quarter, with over $230 billion in volume with average daily volume up over 5% year over year. Our all-to-all average daily volume grew over 65% year over year, and our dealer RFQ average daily volume grew over 40% year over year. We saw record responder rates in High Yield as the team remains focused on expanding our network and increasing the number of responders on the AllTrade platform. Electronification remains a key focus, especially in U.S. Credit where underlying trends are strong. However, investment grade volumes have been increasingly impacted by affiliate trades, which are internal transfers within a dealer that occur after a transaction in the institutional market.

These are double counted, noneconomic trades that do not interact with electronic platforms, distorting reported market share and electronification and creating artificial pressure on both. If you adjust for that activity, the underlying picture looks better. Based on our estimates, first quarter market share in IG would have increased 5 basis points versus our reported decline of 33 basis points, and electronification also would have moved higher. The core trend has not changed, with electronification in U.S. Credit continuing to build, and we feel very good about our positioning as that plays out. Looking ahead, Global Credit remains a key area of focus with a long runway for growth. While U.S.

Credit continues to anchor performance through ongoing innovation, differentiated liquidity, and investment in our platform, we are also scaling European credit by expanding RFQ adoption and liquidity, and advancing munis through increased electronification, transparency, and connectivity in a fragmented market. Finally, in EM credit where we are still early in our expansion, we are building momentum by leveraging our established presence in developed markets alongside a holistic EM product offering across rates and credit. Our EM credit revenues grew over 40% year over year in the first quarter, signaling strong momentum. Moving to slide eight.

Over the past two decades, electronic interest rate swaps trading has evolved from an emerging concept into an ecosystem defined by transparency, efficiency, and ongoing innovation. That continued evolution was evident this quarter, including in moments of heightened volatility where clients leaned further into electronic workflows. Global Swaps delivered record quarterly revenues, up over 45% year over year driven by strong client engagement across our global suite of currency. Our quarterly core risk market share, which drives revenues and excludes compression trading, reached a record, rising 190 basis points year over year. Total market share increased from 21% in the first quarter 2025 to 24.1% in the first quarter 2026, reflecting a combination of strong risk and compression volume growth.

During the quarter, we achieved record share across sterling and other G11 currencies and our second-highest share across EM-denominated currencies. First quarter performance was driven by record revenues across the U.S., Europe, APAC, and emerging markets. This quarter underscored the value of our breadth across the swaps market, particularly as clients’ interest can ebb and flow across products over time. Specifically, as inflation concerns reemerged and rate expectations shifted this quarter, activity picked up in our inflation swaps business, driving record volumes. It is a product area we entered in 2017, where adoption was initially gradual, but where the opportunity in the market expanded materially after 2020, and we currently hold over 95% electronic market share.

That trajectory makes periods like this especially meaningful as they reinforce the value of our continuous investments towards building a more holistic swaps offering across products and geographies over time. Beyond inflation swaps, the nature of trading we saw in March evidenced a broader shift in how electronic trading continues to evolve. Even as market conditions became more challenging, automation remained robust, and we saw clients not only lean into inherently electronic protocols, but use them in a more sophisticated way through sending their trades out to multiple dealers amidst an environment where we have historically seen that pull back.

It is a testament to the sophistication clients have built into their workflows and to the growing value of electronic trading across market conditions. Overall, our RFM protocol saw average daily volume growth of over 150% year over year in the first quarter, with growth accelerating in March. Additionally, we continue to make progress across emerging market swaps. Our first quarter EM swaps revenues delivered another strong growth period, delivering another record, and we believe there remains significant runway given the still relatively low levels of electronification. Looking ahead, we continue to see significant long-term growth potential in swaps.

On a DV01 basis, electronification has grown at an average annual rate of 160 basis points since the first quarter 2020 as dealers and clients move a greater share of their workflows electronically. That progress is reflected in the continued strong revenue performance of our swaps business, and we see substantial opportunity to further digitize workflows alongside our clients. In collaboration with them, we expect to drive continued workflow innovation across both cleared and bilateral swaps markets. With that, let me turn it over to Sara to discuss our financials in more detail.

Sara Hassan Furber: Thanks, William, and good morning. As I go through the numbers, all comparisons will be to the prior-year period unless otherwise noted. Slide nine provides a summary of our quarterly earnings performance. As William recapped earlier, this quarter, we saw record revenues of $618 million that were up 21.2% year over year on a reported basis and 17.5% on a constant currency basis given the weakening dollar. We derived approximately 44% of our first quarter revenues from international clients, and recall that approximately 30% of our revenue base is denominated in currencies other than dollars, predominantly in euros. Total trading revenues increased 23%, comprised of 25% variable trading revenue growth and 14% growth across fixed trading revenue.

Rates fixed revenue growth was primarily driven by an increase in minimum fee floors for certain dealers and by the addition of dealers to our mortgage and U.S. government bond platforms. Credit fixed revenue growth was primarily driven by the previously disclosed introduction of minimum fee floors and the migration of certain dealers to subscription fees. Other revenues of $10 million for the first quarter increased by 56%, primarily driven by growth in our digital initiatives related to our commercial relationship with the Canton network.

Overall, the Other revenue line will remain variable quarter to quarter, reflecting fluctuations in a number of variables, including the number of Canton coins earned, Canton coin value, the number of super validators in the network, and periodic tech enhancements for our retail clients. We expect total Other revenues in 2026 to be roughly in line with 2025. First quarter adjusted EBITDA margin of 55% increased by 101 basis points on a reported basis when compared to our 2025 full-year margins. Our net interest income of approximately $17 million increased due to higher cash balances, which offset lower interest yields. Lastly, this quarter's GAAP results were impacted by both realized and unrealized gains and losses across our strategic investments.

Specifically, we recorded a $1.2 million net loss this quarter, including $2.9 million of unrealized losses from the mark-to-market of our Canton coin holdings. As a reminder, these losses are only included in GAAP EPS and are excluded from our non-GAAP adjusted diluted EPS. Moving on to fees per million on slide 10. We provide a highlight of the key trends for the quarter. You can see slide 17 of the earnings presentation for the full detail regarding our fee per million performance this quarter. I will spend more time talking about cash credit fee per million given the movements are slightly more nuanced.

Cash credit fee per million decreased 15% this quarter based largely on two drivers: the prior introduction of variable and fixed fee mix changes, and business mix changes. Specifically, the introduction of minimum fee floors and migration of certain dealers from fully variable to more fixed plans in 2025, and a mix shift away from municipal bonds and retail this quarter, which carry a relatively higher fee per million, as well as a mix shift towards non-comp PT, which carry a relatively lower fee per million. Excluding the impact of our previously disclosed fee changes, and this quarter's impact of product/protocol mix shifts, fee per million would be down approximately 1%. Slide 11 details our adjusted expenses.

At a high level, the scalability and variable nature of our expense base allows us to continue to invest for growth and grow margins. We have maintained a consistent philosophy here. Adjusted expenses for the first quarter increased 20.2% on a reported basis and 15.3% on a constant currency basis. During the first quarter, we continued investments in tech and communications, digital assets, consulting, and client relationship development. Adjusted compensation costs grew 12%, with nearly 30% of the increase from higher discretionary and performance-related comp, more than 25% due to higher headcount, which was up 11.4% year over year, and 25% due to higher payroll taxes.

Technology and communication costs increased 37.7%, primarily due to our continued investments in data strategy and infrastructure, and increased software costs. Approximately $5 million of the increase was driven by higher reference data costs and investments in our data and infrastructure strategy, both of which began in 2025. Adjusted professional fees grew 18.8% due to an increase in tech consultants as we continue to augment our offshore technology operations. Occupancy expenses increased 61.5%, primarily from increased rent due to the move to our new York City headquarters which came into effect in 2025. Adjusted general and administrative costs increased 85.2%, primarily due to $8.1 million of unfavorable movements in FX, and a pickup in travel and entertainment.

Unfavorable movements in FX resulted in a $5.1 million loss in 2026 versus approximately a $2.9 million gain in 2025. Excluding FX, adjusted general and administrative costs grew 11.4%. Slide 12 details capital management and our guidance. On our cash position and capital return policy, we ended the first quarter in a strong position with approximately $1.9 billion in cash and cash equivalents, and free cash flow exceeding $1 billion for the trailing twelve months, representing strong year-over-year growth of approximately 31%. We also held $1.6 billion of Canton coins, with a fair value of approximately $243 million.

With this quarter's earnings, the Board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.14 per Class A and Class B shares, up 17% year over year. During the quarter, we repurchased approximately 483 thousand shares for $51 million. There is $523 million of aggregate share repurchase authorization remaining. Turning to guidance for 2026. In light of continued strong business momentum, we now expect adjusted expenses to trend towards the top half of the initial guidance range of $1.1 billion to $1.16 billion.

We believe we can drive adjusted EBITDA and operating margin expansion compared to 2025 at either end of this range, although we expect the incremental margin expansion to be more muted as we continue to focus on balancing margin expansion with investing for the future. Specifically, we continue to invest in Credit, Rates, international markets, ICD, and digital assets as key focus areas with a long runway for growth. We also continue to invest in technology that allows us to sustain and build on our leading platform. Some of these investments will take time to scale, but we continue to prize innovation and create durable long-term revenue growth opportunities. Now I will turn it back to William for concluding remarks.

William E. Hult: Thanks, Sara. Before I get into the broader outlook, I want to spend a minute on some of our frontier markets. We have made solid progress there in a relatively short period of time through targeted partnerships and investment. From our work with the Canton network to our new partnerships with Kalshi in prediction markets to Crossover Markets in crypto execution, these partnerships build directly on what we have already established: a broad network, execution infrastructure, and a central role in trading activity. With tokenization, we are focused on the evolution of settlement, particularly around capital efficiency and collateral mobility. We have already executed trades in this space alongside a variety of market participants utilizing Canton's distributed ledger infrastructure.

We are working alongside both existing and new clients who are driving demand for instant settlement. In institutional crypto, the opportunity is to bring more standardized electronic execution to a market where demand is growing, but broadly adopted infrastructure remains nascent. Alongside our investment in partnership with Crossover Markets, we are building a more comprehensive execution offering, including over time, leveraging RateFins technology to incorporate spreading functionality. In prediction markets, through our partnership with Kalshi, we are working to integrate event-driven data into our Rates and Credit platforms while working with market participants to support the longer-term development of an institutional-grade execution environment.

Across all three, the focus is on extending our network and execution capabilities while closely partnering with our clients and the broader ecosystem as these markets evolve. The environment to start the year has been defined by a lot of debate. If anything, that uncertainty has only increased as we move forward. We did see clients take a bit of a breather in April as they stepped back and recalibrated their forward strategies. Importantly, what came through clearly was the durability of our business. Intraday volatility in April to date was down more than 50% year over year. So this was not an easy backdrop.

Even after a record first quarter, April 2025 still ranks as the third-best revenue month in our history after clients rapidly repositioned their portfolios post the announcement of tariffs. Looking ahead to April 2026, despite a tougher comparison and a different volatility environment, we are trending toward another top-five revenue month based on internal estimates. That underscores what we have been talking about for some time now: the breadth of the model and the strength of the recurring activity we are able to build irrespective of the volatility environment. As we focus on delivering more durable, workflow solutions for our clients, we are seeing that translate into sustained engagement.

In fact, April average daily volume is currently running ahead of April 2025, which tells you that while the mix of activity may shift, the level of client connectivity on our platform remains very healthy. With two important month-end trading days left in April, which tend to be some of our strongest revenue days, overall, average daily revenues are trending down by a low single-digit percentage relative to April 2025. The diversity of our growth remains a theme, as we are seeing preliminary positive average daily volume growth across global swaps, mortgages, European government bonds, European credit, EM credit, CDS, equity derivatives, repos, and ICD.

Our IG share is tracking in line with March levels while our High Yield share is tracking above. I would like to conclude my remarks by thanking our clients for their business and partnership in the quarter. I want to thank my colleagues for their efforts that contributed to the record quarterly revenues and volumes at Tradeweb Markets Inc. With that, I will turn it back to Ashley for your questions.

Ashley Neil Serrao: Thanks, William. As a reminder, please limit yourself to one question only. Feel free to hop back in the queue and ask additional questions at the end. Q&A will end at 10:30 AM Eastern Time. Operator, you can now take our first question.

Operator: Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Our first question comes from the line of Craig William Siegenthaler of Bank of America. Your line is now open.

Craig William Siegenthaler: Good morning, William and Sara. Hope you are doing well. Our question is on swaps, and congrats on that 45% year-over-year growth. We wanted your perspective on the good versus bad volatility debate in the swaps market, given recent strength, and especially curious on what you saw in Europe.

William E. Hult: Craig, how are you? It is a good question. Before parsing “good” versus “bad” volatility, a quick moment on the environment. I was very amped about the macro setup last quarter, and a couple of months later the world changes quickly. We remain very amped at Tradeweb Markets Inc. We are in a sweet spot for our business. The combination of fiscal stimulus, monetary debate on Fed timing, a technology investment supercycle, deregulatory unwind, and strong partner bank performance in global markets, plus standout trading from nonbank liquidity providers, creates a prime environment.

On “good” versus “bad” volatility: good volatility features strong two-way markets and active price discovery where our AIX algorithmic search runs really well. “Bad” would be dislocations and thinner liquidity in less-liquid areas like some off-the-run Treasuries. In March, volatility across sterling and European markets was about 2x the U.S. rates market. Given the rapid repricing from cuts to potential hikes, markets moved in an orderly way with healthy price discovery, not stress. Both buy side and dealers are much better positioned to navigate these environments electronically today. We saw increased usage of electronic protocols, particularly RFM and “in-comp” trading. Our request-for-market in Europe reached roughly 45% of flow; in-comp moved north of 80%.

As trading becomes more automated and protocol driven, liquidity is more resilient even as volatility rises. The line between “good” and “bad” volatility becomes less relevant because the market structure is designed to perform across a wide range of conditions. On thriving: if you take April revenues versus May and June of last year, we are up over 10%. Macro volatility is a tailwind, and the electronic runway remains significant in our space. Thanks for the question.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Cyprys of Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Michael Cyprys: Hey, good morning, William and Sara. How are you thinking about AI’s role in increasing automation across workflows, particularly in Credit and Rates, and what KPIs should we track?

William E. Hult: Great and timely question, Michael. Core principle: Tradeweb Markets Inc. is in the business of serving our clients. Everything we do around AI starts there, with the goal of being the most client-centric firm in electronic markets. AI is a massive accelerant, making smart people smarter and more productive. We believe data is the moat. Our proprietary data—from live markets, executable pricing, RFQ behavior, execution outcomes, and client decision-making across assets—gives our AI foundation a real advantage. On generative AI, our goal is to move clients from data retrieval to insight generation in markets that never slow down.

We built an AI-powered assistant, “TARA” (Tradeweb AI Research Assistant), in beta with clients and on track to launch in the second quarter. It will surface insights around liquidity conditions, market participation, historical execution behavior, and relative pricing dynamics in a single conversation. On predictive AI, we are tackling price discovery—one of fixed income’s hardest problems. We are launching AI Price 2.0 at the end of the second quarter. Corporate bonds can go hours or days without a print, and true economics can be obscured by complexity; we are investing heavily here. For KPIs, think: adoption/usage of TARA, accuracy and coverage of AI price estimates, impact on hit/response rates, time-to-fill, client satisfaction, and workflow penetration in automated protocols.

This is not just about doing more with fewer people; it is about reimagining processes so we can invest more in future growth. Data advantage reinforces network effects and opens up new revenue opportunities—smarter, faster ways for clients to trade and execute. Thanks for the question.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Simon Alistair Clinch of Rothschild & Co, Redburn. Your line is now open.

Simon Alistair Clinch: Hi, thanks for taking my question. This one is for Sara. Could you expand on your philosophy for expense growth—your flexibility and willingness to adjust investments up or down in environments of volume upside or downside? How should we think about that flex?

Sara Hassan Furber: Hi, Simon. Great question. Regardless of high or low volume environments, we have significant operating leverage and expense flexibility. Roughly 55% of our expenses are fixed and 45% are variable or discretionary. Within the variable bucket, most are tied more directly to revenue or EBITDA (performance-driven comp, commissions) versus pure volume. Smaller components that correlate to volume—like exchange and clearing fees—are low single digits, about 3% of total expenses. That leaves us flexibility to manage expenses and deliver operating leverage. In higher-revenue environments, we typically accelerate discretionary spend while still delivering margin expansion. Last year, top line grew 19%, expenses grew 17%, and we still delivered 64 basis points of margin improvement.

In 1H 2023, with single-digit top-line growth, we still expanded margins by just under 50 basis points while investing. This quarter, we delivered almost 100 basis points of margin improvement on a constant currency basis despite step-ups from FX, office, and data infrastructure. As revenue scales, we see natural operating leverage, allowing us to calibrate expenses while investing in areas like AI and EM. Our North Star is to invest through the cycle to deliver durable long-term revenue growth.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Schmidt of William Blair. Your line is now open.

Jeff Schmidt: Good morning. You have talked about EM and EM swaps as key revenue growth opportunities. It is still a small part of the mix, but what are you doing on that front and what type of growth are you seeing?

William E. Hult: It is a good question. EM was about 6% of revenues in the first quarter of 2026, up from a little over 1% in 2022, and we are still scratching the surface. The overall EM revenue wallet exceeds a little over $1.5 billion annually, so it is a significant opportunity. We view this as a multiyear growth opportunity. In EM swaps, cleared EM swap markets have grown at over a 20% CAGR over the last five years, yet are still only about 20% electronified and a fraction of the dollar, euro, and sterling markets. We are seeing early success in EM hard and local currency credit—still a bigger lift, but momentum is building.

Index inclusion in markets like Saudi Arabia, evolving clearing frameworks, and increasing participation from global and regional investors are important. Recent launches like Mexican repos and asset swaps are good examples of deploying capital to establish liquidity and then scaling participation across dealers and clients. We feel good about the trajectory, the wallet, and the long-term health of our EM franchise. Thanks for the question.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Patrick Malcolm Moley of Piper Sandler. Your line is now open.

Patrick Malcolm Moley: Good morning. The DTCC’s tokenized Treasury pilot is going to go live on Canton in the next couple months. It is a network you have been running infrastructure on for some time. How are you thinking about the potential impact of real-time intraday collateral mobility on fixed income volumes and Rates in particular? Any broader opportunity and risks as it relates to tokenization, and anything you can share on client conversations and demand for tokenized trading?

William E. Hult: Good to hear your voice, Patrick. We are strong supporters of Canton and think they are onto something important. Tokenization is an upgrade to market infrastructure: faster settlement, more transparency, and potential for real-time, 24/7 collateral movement. The DTCC pilot is meaningful because it brings U.S. Treasuries on-chain within a trusted market structure, which can drive broader industry momentum. We have been active via tokenized repo activity on Canton, with a growing and more diverse participant set. We bring credibility to help the industry get comfortable with change. We do not see this disintermediating us. The execution layer—where liquidity is formed and price is discovered—remains the most valuable part of the market; that is our domain.

As assets become tokenized, they will continue to trade through electronic workflows, which is our bread and butter. The mortgage market, given its importance, has a settlement process that could really change; we will stay focused there. More streamlined settlement can bring more participants into markets. Thanks for the question.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Benjamin Elliot Budish of Barclays. Your line is now open.

Benjamin Elliot Budish: Good morning, and thank you for taking the question. On ICD: it has been almost two years since you completed that acquisition. Could you give us an update on cross-selling, balances, and the product roadmap after the addition of T-Bills?

Sara Hassan Furber: Good morning. We are pleased with ICD’s performance; it has complemented our business culturally, strategically, and financially. This quarter, ICD delivered record revenues and balances with around 8% year-over-year growth. In April, revenue and average daily growth rates are trending higher than in the first quarter. Large corporate issuances and spending have generally benefited ICD as those issuances translate to balances. Corporate health, momentum in new client wins, and high retention remain strong. On our original thesis, we focused on two cross-sell areas: (1) selling our products to ICD clients on their portal, and (2) taking ICD to our client base internationally. The international opportunity—especially Asia—is compelling. We completed Singapore regulatory approvals and added salespeople there.

As we expand in Asia and EM, ICD is a high-quality product to sell into those relationships. On T-Bills, we completed that last year. Cross-selling other Tradeweb Markets Inc. products: core functionality is complete; we are working through adjacent integrations with treasury management platforms to drive easier adoption. Progress is steady, if slower than hoped. Near term, international expansion is more in focus. Strategically, ICD adds durability to our portfolio. In risk-off environments, clients keep more cash; in periods of heavy corporate issuance—historically a near-term headwind for U.S. Credit trading—we see larger cash balances on ICD. That hedge-like quality supports a more durable growth portfolio. Overall, we feel good about ICD and the growth ahead.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Alexander Blostein of Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.

Alexander Blostein: Good morning. On Kalshi and the innovation you are pursuing there: could you provide more specificity on revenue opportunities over time in prediction markets, and how you will deal with regulatory uncertainty?

William E. Hult: Good question, Alex. It is still early, though there is momentum. Not all prediction markets are created equally. We are oriented toward financially focused prediction markets; pop-culture contracts are not our interest. Interest is broad and impressive across hedge funds, systematic shops, nonbank liquidity providers, and increasingly some long-only investors. Fed research has helped timing, but demand was already building. The definition of macro markets is evolving; clients are looking at prediction markets, crypto markets, and other nontraditional sources to support macro strategies. We started simple: launching a free viewer in the second quarter so clients can see select economic and financial event contracts in real time alongside swaps and Treasuries—low friction and focused on discovery and learning.

Next is a normalized API feed so clients can pull this data directly into OMS/EMS and analytics workflows. We expect banks pricing risk on our platform to use this data in forward curves. We will stay thoughtful and disciplined given regulatory headlines and see how things play out. We believe these partnerships can lead to strong innovation, and we will place the right bets around these evolutions. Thanks, Alex.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Christopher John Allen of KBW. Your line is now open.

Christopher John Allen: Good morning. On your February announcement of the partnership with Maxx within U.S. residential mortgages, are you seeing any early returns? And more broadly, how does MBS trading look into the back half of this year and 2027?

William E. Hult: Same theme you are hearing from us: we are placing disciplined bets on further evolution with a clear vision. Maxx is important, and it is still early. We entered into a commercial collaboration to expand institutional access across the U.S. residential private credit marketplace. Maxx is a leading digital exchange for whole loans, connecting a broad network of originators with institutional buyers via a centralized clearinghouse—unique in a highly fragmented market. That is the kind of partner we like. The mortgage market is an extremely important part of the Rates complex, and we have a leadership position we are proud of. We will take that leadership into further innovation.

Activity levels are healthy, and we remain bullish on continued evolution and trading velocity in mortgages—one of our original markets. We are focused on Maxx and broadly constructive on MBS activity into the back half and beyond. Thanks for the question.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I would now like to turn it back to William E. Hult for closing remarks.

William E. Hult: Thank you all very much for joining us this morning. We appreciate the questions as always. Any follow-ups, please feel free to reach out to Ashley, Sameer, and the team. Thank you all. Have a great day.

Operator: Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect.