In the news

Benefits Canada: A return to pragmatism created a rebounding effect for Canadian equities in 2025, says Jesse Forster, senior analyst in market structure and technology at Crisil Coalition Greenwich. In a report summarizing the performance of the Canadian markets in 2025, Forster says he found support for organic growth in Equities thanks to maintenance flow and rotations compared to an artificial effect.

IFR: E-Trading now accounts for about half of U.S. Investment-Grade transactions, up from 8% in 2013, and a record US$51bn of U.S. Corporate Bonds changed hands daily on average last year -a 64% rise from 2019-, according to Crisil Coalition Greenwich. "Competition has gotten fiercer as credit markets have become more automated, which is making it harder for banks to make money," said Kevin McPartland, head of market structure and technology research at Coalition Greenwich. "We've seen this over the decades in other markets. It causes people to look at their costs, not just their revenues."

Benefits Canada: 85% of U.S. Institutional Asset owners rely on consultants to oversee manager selection, performance monitoring, asset allocation and even outsourced chief investment officer services, according to a new report by Crisil Coalition Greenwich. The report found the consulting industry has been reshaped following significant consolidation, adoption of the OCIO model, increased ownership from private equity and an integration effect between consultants, wealth management and registered investment advisor firms. "Institutions are relying heavily on their consultants for support and advice not only for help in narrowing down potential managers and awarding mandates, but also for assistance in valuing and monitoring opaque private assets and integrating them into their allocation frameworks," said Mark Buckley, global co-head of Investment Management at Coalition Greenwich, in a statement.

GTR: Upheaval unleashed by U.S. tariff policy hasn't had a major impact on Trade Finance lending. Trade itself has proven more resilient than expected. "Generally speaking, the market has been very constructive," said Eric Li, head of global banking research at Crisil Coalition Greenwich. "I think that volumes across the board are up in dollar terms, especially in traditional trade."We expect the market to go up a little bit. It's trade finance we're talking about - it's never going to go up 20% in the quarter."

Full FX: Observing that prediction markets have become "the biggest story in derivatives markets since bitcoin futures launched in 2017", a recent Coalition Greenwich report highlights the "exceptionally rapid growth" in the contracts, but also notes "there are concerns about reputation risk". It finds that 38% believe these markets risk undermining the reputation of mainstream futures markets, while 29% believed they were a "sideshow". Conversely, 23% argued that these markets will benefit the futures industry by encouraging more trading.

Treasury Today: A report by Crisil Coalition Greenwich has found that Corporate Treasury departments are not getting the productivity boost they anticipated from their investments in AI. Despite around half of Large Corporates globally committing resources to deploy AI in their treasury departments, the report suggests they have made limited progress towards implementing the technology into workflows in a way that can meaningfully impact performance. The results from Asia-based respondents suggest Large Corporates in that region have been even slower to deploy AI in their treasury departments than their counterparts in the US or Europe. 46% of the U.S.-based Treasurers surveyed were running initial pilots, researching use cases or expanding AI across multiple treasury functions. The equivalent figure for Europe was 54%. In contrast, 61% of Asian treasurers said they were not using AI at all.

Traders: While geopolitical tensions has always been a factor in the derivatives market, it has come to the fore given the ongoing conflicts globally, according to a recent report from Crisil Coalition Greenwich- 'Drivers of derivatives market change in 2026'. The study found that the top three catalysts are geopolitical conflict, prediction markets and tokenisation. It is no surprise that geopolitical tensions was in pole position for almost half of respondents given the turmoil caused by the various conflicts. However, different segments had their own views- with 63% of end users putting it at the top of their list, in contrast with just 39% of intermediaries. As Stephen Bruel, report author, and research director on the Market Structure & Technology team, said, "regardless of your place in the ecosystem, these market conditions are often when derivatives show their true value. Whether used to speculate on market change or protect against uncertainty, derivatives markets thrive when volatile"...

Finance Magnates: A 2026 survey by Crisil Coalition Greenwich found that 43% of financial professionals viewed prediction markets positively, while 60% said their data could complement traditional macro indicators.

The Desk: Although almost half of Asian Institutional Investors anticipate a significant increase in private debt allocations over the next three years, expectations of growth in the asset class have declined substantially year-on-year, according to a recent Crisil Coalition Greenwich study. 47% of Asia ex-Japan Institutional Investors expect allocations to the asset class to "significantly increase". This is a decrease from 70% and 65% in the prior two years. Alternative investment allocation across Asia ex-Japan has been increasing fairly steadily since 2021, growing by one percentage point per year to reach 17% of total assets in 2024. In 2025, this dipped to 16% - with 3.6% of total assets being allocated to private debt. Predictions of private equity allocation growth, while lower than private debt, have grown since 2023 - with net expectations going from 27% to 18% in 2024 and 29% in the 2025 study.

FT Fundfire: Most Private Fund managers are still far from effectively adopting AI in their operations, despite the technology's burgeoning profile. That's according to a recent study from Crisil Coalition Greenwich, and Allvue Systems. The study, conducted last year with people from Private Equity, Private Credit, and Venture Capital managers in North America and Europe, found that only 23% of respondents described themselves as above average in their current use of AI, and just under 40% considered themselves below average...

FT Fundfire: Most Private Fund managers are still far from effectively adopting AI in their operations, despite the technology's burgeoning profile. That's according to a recent study from Crisil Coalition Greenwich, and Allvue Systems. The study, conducted last year with people from Private Equity, Private Credit, and Venture Capital managers in North America and Europe, found that only 23% of respondents described themselves as above average in their current use of AI, and just under 40% considered themselves below average...

Financial News: Fixed-income trading activity has surged. Nearly $80bn of U.S. Corporate Bonds and more than $1.4tn of U.S. Treasuries were traded on 3 March, up 56% and 40% respectively from 2025's full-year averages, according to Crisil Coalition Greenwich. "While volume doesn't always equate to profitable trading, macro desks tend to perform well in an environment of high market volatility," said Kevin McPartland, head of market structure and technology at Coalition Greenwich. Bank traders have made a sustained recovery after seven consecutive years of falling industry-wide revenue between 2013 and 2019, a period marked by lower volatility and near-zero interest rates. "Liberation Day, the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, and the pandemic panic all proved to be ripe training grounds for trading desks, leaving most better equipped to handle new volatility shocks," said Coalition Greenwich's McPartland.

R&I: Tomomi Shigeru, head of the Investment Management Division Japan, at Crisil Coalition Greenwich, spoke with R&I about investment trends in pension funds based on the 2025 Institutional Investor Trends Survey conducted by the company. Shigeru mentioned that the need for alternative investments, mainly private assets, is still high, and pointed out that management fees are declining in the alternative field.

FT Fundfire: Graystone Consulting, a Morgan Stanley unit, has again topped Coalition Greenwich's ranking of large Investment Consultants, at a time when Institutional Investors are demanding more from these firms as it relates to alternative strategies. To determine the winners, asset owners were asked to name consultant firms and rate them across various categories, including how they understand the client's goals and objectives, asset allocation advice, timeliness, quality of client service, and satisfaction with recommended managers. Consultants that achieved the best scores across all the surveyed categories earned top billing, said Mark Buckley, global head of Investment Management at Crisil Coalition Greenwich. "There's no silver bullet - you really need to do everything," he said. It all comes down to setting expectations with the client and delivering on a regular basis, Buckley added.

IFR: Global banks' precious metals trading revenues jumped 60% last year to a record of nearly US$4bn, according to Crisil Coalition Greenwich. That came as concerns over tariffs, the value of the U.S. dollar, and mounting government debt sent investors flocking to the apparent safety of gold. Angad Chhatwal, head of Fixed Income, Currencies, & Commodities at Coalition Greenwich, said banks are on course to increase precious metals trading revenues by up to 10% in 1Q26 from an already high base following the unusually busy start to the year. "Recent shifts in global macroeconomics have driven this volatility in precious metals prices and made trading these markets much more profitable for banks," said Chhatwal.

Bloomberg: Treasury departments in global companies are struggling to adopt AI tools, according to a Crisil Coalition Greenwich survey, underscoring how slowly the technology is penetrating acritical function in Corporate Finance. "Corporate Treasury Departments aren't getting the productivity boost they anticipated from their investments in AI," wrote Tobias Miarka, head of Corporate Banking research and author of the report. "Corporate Treasury departments aren't getting the productivity boost they anticipated from their investments in artificial intelligence," wrote Tobias Miarka, head of Corporate Banking research and author of the report.

Tech in Asia: Global Corporate Treasuries are slow to adopt AI, according to a study by Crisil Coalition Greenwich. The report found fewer than 10% of treasury teams use AI for core functions like financial forecasting and fraud detection, with half not yet implementing AI. The main barriers include lack of in-house expertise and integration hurdles (compatibility with existing systems and processes), partly due to data quality issues. The study shows many expect to increase AI investments but warns that investing without fixing data management and governance risks wasteful spending. About 60% of large global firms expect to increase AI investments, says Tobias Miarka, report author.

DB Flow: Data issues and slow integration/adoption are preventing AI's full potential from being realised in Corporate Treasury. Tobias Miarka, Global Head of Corporate Banking at Crisil Coalition Greenwich, examines what this means for businesses and treasurers. A new report from Coalition Greenwich reveals that around half of large companies globally are yet to deploy AI in their Corporate Treasury departments, while those that have started have made only limited progress.

The Desk: "The portfolio trading wars are in full swing among the major trading venues and have already resulted in increasingly sophisticated and easy-to-use analytics and execution tools for buy-side users," observed Kevin McPartland and Neha Jain. Crisil Coalition Greenwich highlights the increasing presence of portfolio trading across U.S. credit. In January, use of the strategy increased by 1.4 percentage points to 11.4% of volumes.

Der Treasurer: Among banks in German Cash Management, there is a new market leader, according to the results of Coalition Greenwich's annual study. Deutsche Bank is on par with Commerzbank AG. But who will be the other top banks in cash management in 2026? Who will prevail at the European level, and which bank can particularly impress in the quality category?

Finance Magnates: According to Crisil Coalition Greenwich research based on interviews with some of the largest fund distributors in Singapore, fund distribution platforms have reported positive net asset growth across Equities, Fixed Income and Multi-Asset Funds for the first time since 2022.

Bloomberg: The relentless demand for Corporate Bonds is driving record trading volume. According to Crisil Coalition Greenwich., more than $61 billion of U.S. Corporate Bonds traded per day on average in January. That's 11% hotter than at the same point in 2025, setting the stage for another heavy trading year. Automation has helped lift trading volume by more than 40% since 2022, even as Sell-side Trading Desk headcount continues to decline, according to Kevin McPartland Coalition Greenwich's head of Market Structure and Technology research. "More automation and more quantitatively-driven trading and strategies is definitely helping the market to turnover more," he said. "You just couldn't do that if you weren't automated to grow volume that fast."

Bond Buyer: According to a new report from Coalition Greenwich, E-Trading continues its "slow, steady grind upward, reaching 18.7% of total volume in 2025," inching up 0.6 percentage points from 2024. the report notes that; "Broad adoption of Muni SMAs required a more automated investing process- one that is becoming increasingly automated as SMA AUM continues to grow," while "the ETF-to-cash ratio " grew in 2025 for the first time in two years, suggesting that appetite for the product from traders and investors is robust,..."

The Desk: Electronic trading of U.S. Treasuries declined in 2025 despite rising average daily notional volumes, according to Crisil Coalition Greenwich. ADNV was up 16% year-on-year to US$1 trillion, driven by dealer-to-dealer on-the-run Treasury trading. Overall e-trading fell by four percentage points YoY to 55% of volumes. At the same time, e-trading ADNV rose 8% to US$570 billion. Coalition Greenwich attributes this shift to an increase in voice-executed package trades, which are often more complex trades due to their inclusion of swaps and futures.