Illustration: Carolina Moscoso
Treasury’s Elite Bond Dealers Will Struggle to Handle $50 Trillion Debt
As US debt balloons, firms that play a vital role in ensuring the biggest bond market works properly warn of the risk of growing pressures.
It was once the club every Wall Street institution wanted to join: the elite network of primary dealers who serve as gatekeepers of the world’s biggest and most influential bond market, US Treasuries.
Not so much anymore. Just as America’s debt load is poised to balloon beyond already-record levels, a variety of forces has made membership in this vital cohort less coveted. In one telling example, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Securities in September indicated that it had shelved, for now, its long-touted plans to join the group, with the rise of electronic trading allowing it to earn a spot as a market-making giant despite not being among the Federal Reserve’s select counterparties.