Transparency in the US corporate bond market took a step forward last week when the National Association of Securities Dealers, the trade body for securities market participants, offered retail investors real-time data on 29,000 bonds, or 99% of the US corporate debt market.

NASD, whose Trace platform originally covered just 500 bonds at launch in 2002, will not report data on infrequently traded bonds that are predominantly held by dealers and institutional investors.