Bond Buyers Escape Wall Street to Computerized Shadows to Trade

Here’s a reason for optimism among credit investors tired of needing Wall Street to handle their transactions: Activity is picking up elsewhere.

Average daily volume in U.S. fixed-income exchange-traded funds, for instance, surged 45 percent last year, according to data compiled by Societe Generale SA. And investors are increasingly gravitating toward electronic platforms where they can trade among themselves, without dealers as middlemen.