Core Liquidity Provider

What Is a Core Liquidity Provider?

A core liquidity provider is a financial institution that acts as a middleman in the securities markets. The providers buy large volumes of securities from the companies that issue them and then distribute them in batches to financial institutions who then make them available directly to retail investors. This is often facilitated by ECN brokers.

The term core liquidity provider describes the function of these firms: They may simultaneously buy and sell shares of a security with the goal of ensuring that it is always available on-demand. A core liquidity provider is also known as a market maker.

Core liquidity providers are typically institutions or banks that underwrite or finance equity or debt transactions and then make a market or assist in the trading of the securities.

Understanding the Core Liquidity Provider

Ideally, the core liquidity provider brings greater price stability to the markets, enabling securities to be distributed on-demand to both retail and institutional investors. Without their participation, the liquidity or availability of any given security would not be guaranteed and the ability of buyers and sellers to buy or sell it at any given time would be diminished.

They quite literally make a market for an asset by offering their holdings for sale at any given time while simultaneously buying more of them. This pushes the volume of sales higher. But it also allows investors to buy shares whenever they want to without having to wait for another investor to decide to sell.

Their activities underpin some routine practices in the market, such as hedging. In the commodities markets, for instance, farmers and food processing companies invest regularly to protect their businesses against declines or increases in future crop prices.

Special Considerations

A key characteristic of core liquidity providers is that they continually provide liquidity in all market conditions, not just when they find it advantageous to buy or sell a security. Unlike traders, their business model is not dependant on securities prices.

A bank, financial institution, or trading firm may be a core liquidity provider. The different business models and capabilities of these liquidity providers allow them to serve the market in different ways.

Their Role in IPOs

Perhaps the best-known core liquidity providers are the institutions that underwrite initial public offerings (IPOs). When a company goes public on a stock exchange, it selects an underwriter to manage the process. The underwriter buys the stock directly from the company and then resells it in large batches to large financial institutions, which then make the shares available directly to their clients.