CHICAGO — Spline Data, a newly formed quantitative U.S. municipal bond data provider, today announced the launch of its first products designed to bring data-driven, actionable yield curves to the municipal bond market. In contrast to current municipal market pricing conventions that generally reflect only round lots—which make up only five percent of trades—Spline’s new investment grade, fixed coupon municipal bond curves intend to utilize every trade in the market. Updating every five minutes, Spline’s curves are now available in a number of variations including rating, source of repayment and, importantly, trade size.
Based in Chicago and founded by Matthew Smith, formerly of Headlands Tech Global Markets and TD Securities Automated Trading, Spline Data formed last year with its initial funding round led by Tower Research Ventures, the venture arm of trading firm Tower Research Capital.
“The municipal bond market still relies upon noisy and fractured pricing data that is increasingly out of sync with today’s electronic trading ecosystems,” said Matthew Smith, founder and CEO. “With nearly 95 percent of trades in this market printing at $1 million in value or less, the need for quantitatively-computed, independent municipal bond curves is clear. My goal in creating Spline Data is to eliminate the guesswork needed to execute in the municipal bond market by providing precise and frequent quantitative market data similar to what’s available in more mature asset classes. Our curves are purely data-driven, provable and transparent, providing the granular inputs that are vital to professional traders and asset managers in their algorithms, executions and analysis.”
“Fixed income traders’ demand for quantitative market data and systematic trading techniques has never been greater, especially in slower-moving markets such as municipal bonds,” said John Cogman, Chief Investment Officer of Tower Research Capital. “Spline’s speed of development and product thus far shows great promise for market disruption and will no doubt bring new trading opportunities and efficiencies to the municipal bond market. From both venture and trading perspectives, Tower is excited to partner with Matthew and his team.”
Information regarding Spline’s newly available curve products can be found at splinedata.com. Future product launches planned include varied states, sectors, coupons and liquidity.
About Spline Data
Spline Data is the creator of quantitatively driven yield curves for the municipal bond market, providing professional and institutional traders with actionable and innovative market data solutions. Based in Chicago, Spline formed in 2022. For more information, please visit splinedata.com.
About Tower Research Ventures
Tower Research Ventures is the venture arm of Tower Research Capital LLC (“Tower”), which was founded in 1998. Tower Research Ventures generally provides pre-seed, seed, and Series A capital to companies and backs entrepreneurs looking for a strategic partner to invest and grow with. Tower is a trading and technology company that has built a global, multi-asset, systematic trading and investing platform. Tower deploys automated quantitative strategies with connectivity in 100+ venues and is one of the largest global market makers across a wide range of traditional and crypto asset classes. The firm is headquartered in New York, NY.
Contacts
For Spline Data:
Sarah Tegel
media@splinedata.com
+1 773-301-8277
For Tower Research Ventures:
ventures@tower-research.com