May 23, 2016
On behalf of the entire BondLink team, I’m proud to announce our product launch as of Monday, May 23rd.
When we began building in 2015, we set this date as our target to go live because it coincides with the start of the 2016 Annual Government Finance Officers of America (GFOA) conference. The GFOA is made up of more than 18,000 dedicated government finance professionals from all different types and sizes of issuer organizations, and its our mission to provide tools to help them reduce their borrowing costs when they issue municipal bonds.
As any startup can attest, it’s a lot of work to get off the ground and then deliver a product to market. I’d like to thank our investors, who have seeded us financially but have also encouraged us at every possible turn. And I’d also like to thank the states, cities, public authorities and non-profits that have beta tested for us all spring.
Over the past few years, market regulators have grown increasingly concerned with the efficiency of the municipal market, specifically calling out its market structure and disclosure weaknesses. Their fear is that investors in the municipal bond market aren’t accorded the same levels of data and price transparency as they are in other markets. As a company, that’s where we’ve focused our energy. We want to provide the market solution that regulators are looking for and help move the municipal bond market forward. There are a number of technology companies that provide services to market participants in the municipal bond market. But we’re a little different: we’re built exclusively for issuers. We know from first-hand experience how difficult it is to be a public sector CFO or treasurer. And we’re driven to help governments issue bonds at lower costs so that public funds can be used for other critical needs like education, health care and public safety.
We look forward to meeting and working with new clients, as well as continuing to serve our existing clients.
