US fintechs push into fixed-income trading as retail investor interest grows
retail investor interest sparked by soaring yields in 2023.
Online brokerage Public, wealth management platform Wealthfront and fintech software company Apex Fintech Solutions are among the firms launching new products that aim to make it easier and more affordable for individual investors to gain exposure to fixed-income products like Treasuries and corporate bonds.
Elevate Your Tech Prowess with High-Value Skill Courses
Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIIM LucknowIIML Executive Programme in FinTech, Banking & Applied Risk ManagementVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Professional Certificate in Product ManagementVisitIIM KozhikodeIIMK Advanced Data Science For ManagersVisit Market participants say there is little guarantee that bonds — long seen as a more staid part of the financial universe — will generate the same level of investor enthusiasm as stocks, whose wild swings in recent years minted a generation of online traders.
Nevertheless, the development is another example of how two-decade-high Federal Reserve interest rates are changing the investment landscape and sparking more retail interest in fixed-income products, which have historically been more cumbersome and expensive for amateur investors to trade.
Even as the Fed eyes rate cuts this year, fintechs believe they have an opportunity to transform retail bond investing with features the industry used to popularize stock trading, such as low-cost products, financial education tools, easy-to-use apps and fractionalized shares. Public and Apex are also offering fractionalized bond products, similar to the fractionalized stock shares offered by many online brokerages.
«When you try and do anything in the bond or fixed-income world… it looks and feels 25 years
