The two leading corporate bond platforms are about to merge. Incapital has entered into a definitive agreement with Bank of America to acquire its LaSalle Broker Dealer Services Division. The transaction will merge two leading retail corporate bond platforms: InterNotes, managed by a joint venture between Banc of America Securities and Incapital, and Direct Access Notes or DANS, previously managed by LaSalle.
Incapital has "been partners with Bank of America for a long time and BofA bought LaSalle Bank," said Tom Ricketts, president and CEO of Incapital, said in an interview. "BofA essentially had two entities that were servicing the same market, so we all agreed that Incapital would buy the LaSalle entity from Bank of America. We intend to take what's great from the [InterNotes and DANs] platforms, combine them, and end up with a real significant player in the market."
