Tradeweb is one of the world’s largest multi-dealer platforms and a global leader in building and operating electronic over-the-counter marketplaces.

The Challenge

Tradeweb came to Fathom in 2013 in need of help. They wanted to create a new corporate credit platform, but their prior attempt had been unsuccessful. They knew they needed to do things differently this time round.

They would need to launch with a truly revolutionary interface, which both drove adoption and encouraged migration from voice to electronic sales and trading.

They needed, in their words, ‘some West Coast cool.’

The Solution

Right from the outset we collaborated as One Team to define the new vision. With UX first and foremost in all decision making, we met with Tradeweb’s clients, quickly introducing personas and determining the key features required to drive adoption.

By pioneering a new design language, user experience and UI design, we modernised Tradeweb’s entire visual identity.

By getting to code as quickly as possible, we accelerated their adoption of new technologies, proving the performance and capability of the proposed stack by showing it could handle the required volumes and refresh rates.

And in less than 11 months we created a transformative enterprise-class application.

And then watched as it was launched on trading desktops all over the world.

The Outcome

Our partnership with Tradeweb resulted in a best-in-class application that offered a guided and intuitive trading experience for corporate credit.

At launch, Tradeweb’s corporate bond platform was the most advanced online marketplace for corporate bond investors available. And it was the only platform to fully integrate TRACE data into a trader's workflow, allowing buy-side investors to commingle up to 30 buy and sell trades on a single electronic Bid and Offer List.

Technically, our advocacy of modern web technologies provided the foundations for their entire platform.

Creatively, our design work on visual identity and user interface was not only adopted and expanded for other instrument types and asset classes but extended outwards from the software to influence how the company markets and communicates its messages visually.

It’s amazing what can be achieved with a talented, experienced and collaborative team.