MKTX

MarketAxess Holdings

DOUBTFUL — SCREEN DOES NOT PASSstock

Is MKTX Halal?

Bond trading platform with concerns over interest-based securities.

What You Should Know

MarketAxess operates electronic trading platform for fixed income securities. While platform business may be permissible, facilitates trading of interest-bearing bonds raising Sharia concerns. Its March 31, 2026 Form 10-Q reports $2,301.536 million of assets, $228.250 million of interest-bearing debt, $377.302 million of cash, $170.808 million of interest-bearing securities, $1,105.220 million of receivables and $233.380 million of quarterly revenue. Debt/assets is 9.92%, liquidity/assets is 23.81% and receivables-plus-cash/assets is 64.41%; receivables fail the examined asset-based limits and the fixed-income facilitation remains a qualitative failure.

⚠️ Concerns

  • Facilitates interest-based bond trading
  • Receivables-plus-cash/assets 64.41% exceeds examined limits
  • Commission revenue tied to riba instruments
  • Broker and customer settlement receivables

Current quantitative Sharia screen

Based on 10-Q figures for the period ended 2026-03-31; calculated 2026-07-15.

USD · millions
Interest-bearing debt / assets
9.92%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

228.25 / 2,301.536

Cash + interest-bearing securities / assets
23.81%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

548.11 / 2,301.536

Receivables + cash / assets
64.41%Above limit
Below 50% under FTSE Yasaar

1,482.522 / 2,301.536

Non-compliant income / revenue
1.85%Within limit
No more than 5% under FTSE Yasaar

4.308 / 233.38

FTSE Yasaar
v4.6, February 2026
Financial
Fails
Overall
Fails

Debt/assets is 9.92%, liquidity/assets is 23.81% and receivables-plus-cash/assets is 64.41%, above the examined FTSE 50% receivables limit; the fixed-income facilitation activity also fails.

MSCI Islamic (total-assets series)
October 2024 methodology
Financial
Fails
Overall
Fails

Receivables-plus-cash/assets is 64.41%, above the examined MSCI 33.33% limit; the fixed-income facilitation activity also fails.

Malaysia SAC financial ratios
single 5% activity benchmark adopted November 2025
Financial
Pass
Overall
Fails

Debt/assets is 9.92% and liquidity/assets is 23.81%, below the examined Malaysia limits, but the core fixed-income facilitation activity fails; this is a calculation against SAC ratios, not an official classification.

Market-cap denominator methods
MSCI M-Series, S&P and Dow Jones methods differ
Financial
Not calculated
Overall
Fails

A properly licensed and reproducible historical market-cap series is not stored; the asset-ratio and core-business failures independently prevent a pass.

Business-activity disclosure

MarketAxess operates an electronic fixed-income trading and post-trade platform. Its core commission and service activity facilitates trading in interest-bearing bonds and related securities, which is treated as a core-business failure here.

Limitation: The filing does not allocate commissions, information services, post-trade services and technology services by a scholar-approved Sharia classification; total revenue is used as a conservative proxy.

Purification

The fixed-income trading-facilitation activity is treated as a core-business failure; disclosed interest income is evidence for the screen rather than a standalone purification prescription.

Inputs, assumptions and primary sources
  • Amounts are USD millions converted from MarketAxess' March 31, 2026 Form 10-Q values reported in thousands.
  • Borrowings are $228.250 million; payables to broker-dealers, clearing organizations and customers are operating/settlement liabilities and are excluded from interest-bearing debt.
  • Cash and cash equivalents are $377.302 million. Investments of $170.808 million include corporate bonds and U.S. Treasury securities and are retained as interest-bearing securities; segregated cash is excluded.
  • Receivables combine accounts receivable of $128.171 million and receivables from broker-dealers, clearing organizations and customers of $977.049 million; quarterly revenue is $233.380 million and disclosed interest income is $4.308 million.
  • MarketAxess' commissions and services facilitate fixed-income securities trading; total revenue is used as a conservative core-activity proxy rather than inventing a smaller permissible numerator.

This is a reproducible financial screen, not a fatwa. A failed total-assets screen can coexist with a pass under a market-cap methodology. ZakatInvest keeps the qualitative assessment separate so numerical thresholds do not erase material context.

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