Market turmoil after the conflict involving Iran has pushed broker-mediated
trades in the European repo market to 16.2% of outstanding repos as of June, the
highest level since 2012, ICMA's semiannual survey of banks and institutions
shows. That is about a 2.5 percentage-point increase versus the prior six
months. Electronic trading's market share fell to 24.3%, a 16-year low. The
followed shifts a government-bond sell-off and investor runs to liquidity, with
participants moving toward more opaque financing channels. Manual
brokers—matching trades by phone or instant messaging—have been increasingly
relied on since 2022, especially when liquidity is thin or volatility rises.
