Due to a change in securities regulation, Zions Direct Auctions is now requiring bidders, with the exception of participants in FDIC-insured Certificate of Deposit auctions, to have a Zions Direct account connected to their auction account prior to bidding. This change is necessitated by a consumer-focused shift in reporting requirements to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE).

TRACE was introduced in 2002 to give increased visibility to investors about publicly traded “TRACE -eligible” debt securities. In addition, the reporting system aggregates and recaps market data in an effort to help individuals understand how the fixed-income market is functioning. The data is free and open to the public . . . read more

Zions Direct, the broker-dealer subsidiary of Zions First National Bank, today announced that it has completed 750 online auctions for a variety of investments, including FDIC-insured certificates of deposit (CDs), corporate and municipal bonds, and preferred stock, since February 2007. Zions Direct’s unique platform allows individual investors to earn the same yield as institutional investors by avoiding the broker mark-up typically associated with retail investments.

With increased transparency luring individual investors, Zions Direct has enjoyed marked growth during the current economic environment. In fact, auction bidding accounts have grown 71 percent over the past 12 months. As a result of this growth, Zions Direct has increased the number of auctions held each week.

Look for Zions Direct at the Money Show in Las Vegas starting today, May 11 and running through the 14th. We will be hosting a booth and two workshops to describe why Zions Direct is the ideal destination for the self-directed fixed income investor. Speaking at the workshops will be Vice Presidents Evan Hill and Veronica Atkinson.

On April 28, Zions Direct closed its first municipal bond offering on the auctions platform. At its close, participants had bid on nearly nine times the offered amount on the Manatee County, Florida bond with the highest bid asking for a premium price of more than 1½ % above the coupon. Because of the benefits of the modified Dutch auction model, all winning bids got a better price than the coupon amount as each walked away a yield greater than 4.251% on these seven-year municipal bonds.

For those taking those possible tax advantages on this bond, if we assume a 35% tax bracket, it would take a yield of 6.53% on a taxable security in order to get a similar after-tax equivalent yield.

Zions Direct Chairman W. David Hemingway was featured in a recent Wall Street Journal article examining the Zions Direct auction platform.