that our electronic trading platform is more fully integrated into the workflow of our broker-dealer and institutional investor clients and to continue to add functionality to allow our clients to achieve a fully automated end-to-end straight-through processing solution ( automation from trade initiation to settlement ) ; to add new content and analytical capabilities to bondticker and expand axess all , the first intra-day trade tape for the european fixed income market , and our other data service offerings provided by trax ® to improve the value of the information we provide to our clients ; and to continue to increase and supplement our internal growth by entering into strategic alliances , or acquiring businesses or technologies that will enable us to enter new markets , provide new products or services , or otherwise enhance the value of our platform to our clients . for example , the acquisition of xtrakter limited ( “ xtrakter ” ) in february 2013 provided us with an expanded set of technology solutions ahead of incoming pre-and post-trade transparency mandates from mifid ii 43 in europe . in recent years , we entered into , and expanded , a strate gic alliance with blackrock , inc. ( “ blackrock ” ) to combine blackrock 's order flow with our open trading solution to improve the range of trading connections available to credit market participants in the u.s. , europe and asia . in 2016 , we entered into an agreement with s & p dow jones indices to jointly develop indices that will track the most liquid segments of the u.s. corporate bond market . critical factors affecting our industry and our company economic , political and market factors the global fixed-income securities industry is risky and volatile and is directly affected by a number of economic , political and market factors that may result in declining trading volume . these factors could have a material adverse effect on our business , financial condition and results of operations . these factors include , among others , credit market conditions , the current interest rate environment , including the volatility of interest rates and investors ' forecasts of future interest rates , economic and political conditions in the united states , europe and elsewhere , and the consolidation or contraction of our broker-dealer clients . in 2016 , our business faced a challenging macro environment which we attribute to a number of cyclical factors , including accommodative monetary policies by several major central banks , including the federal reserve and the european central bank . these monetary policies have resulted in historically low levels of volatility and interest rates across most of the fixed income markets . the global credit markets have also faced structural issues in recent years , such as trading limits imposed by the volcker rule , increased bank capital requirements under basel iii and the quantitative easing program of the european central bank . following the u.s. presidential election in november , however , the global credit markets experienced a significant shift in sentiment and increased volatility with the expectation of an upward trend in interest rates and inflation . competitive landscape the global fixed-income securities industry generally , and the electronic financial services markets in which we engage in particular , are highly competitive , and we expect competition to intensify in the future . sources of competition for us will continue to include , among others , bond trading conducted directly between broker-dealers and their institutional investor clients over the telephone or electronically and other multi-dealer or all-to-all trading platforms . competitors , including companies in which some of our broker-dealer clients have invested , have developed or acquired electronic trading platforms or have announced their intention to explore the development of electronic platforms or information networks that may compete with us . in general , we compete on the basis of a number of key factors , including , among others , the liquidity provided on our platform , the magnitude and frequency of price improvement enabled by our platform and the quality and speed of execution . we believe that our ability to grow volumes and revenues will largely depend on our performance with respect to these factors . our competitive position is also enhanced by the familiarity and integration of our broker-dealer and institutional investor clients with our electronic trading platform and other systems . we have focused on the unique aspects of the credit markets we serve in the development of our platform , working closely with our clients to provide a system that is suited to their needs . regulatory environment our industry has been and is subject to continuous regulatory changes and may become subject to new regulations or changes in the interpretation or enforcement of existing regulations , which could require us to incur significant costs . following the global financial crisis and other recent events in the financial industry , governments and regulators in both the united states and europe called for increased regulation and transparency in the over-the-counter markets . as a result , the dodd-frank act was signed into law in july 2010. among the most significant requirements of the derivatives section of the dodd-frank act are mandatory clearing of certain derivative instruments ( “ swaps ” ) through regulated central clearing organizations and mandatory trading of those instruments through either regulated exchanges or swap execution facilities ( “ sefs ” ) , in each case , subject to certain key exceptions . marketaxess sef corporation , our wholly-owned u.s. subsidiary , operates as a sef for the trading of certain index swaps . the sec has not yet finalized its rules for security-based sefs , nor has it published a timetable for the finalization and implementation of such rules . story_separator_special_tag the effect on deferred tax assets and liabilities of a change in tax rates is recognized in income in the period that includes the enactment date . a valuation allowance is recognized against deferred tax assets if it is more likely than not that such assets will not be realized in future years . we recognize interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits in general and administrative expenses in our consolidated statements of operations . business combinations , goodwill and intangible assets business combinations are accounted for under the purchase method of accounting . the total cost of an acquisition is allocated to the underlying net assets based on their respective estimated fair values . the excess of the purchase price over the estimated fair values of the net assets acquired is recorded as goodwill . determining the fair value of certain assets acquired and liabilities assumed is judgmental in nature and often involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions , including assumptions with respect to future cash flows , discount rates , growth rates and asset lives . we operate as a single reporting unit . subsequent to an acquisition , goodwill no longer retains its identification with a particular acquisition , but instead becomes identifiable with the entire reporting unit . as a result , all of our fair value is available to support the value of goodwill . an impairment review of goodwill is performed on an annual basis , at year-end , or more frequently if circumstances change . intangible assets with definite lives , including purchased technologies , customer relationships and other intangible assets , are amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives , ranging from three to 15 years . intangible assets are assessed for impairment when events or circumstances indicate the existence of a possible impairment . recent accounting pronouncements see note 2 to the consolidated financial statements included in item 8 of this annual report on form 10-k for a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements . 48 segment results we operate an electronic multi-party platform for the trading of fixed-income securities and provide related data , analytics , compliance tools and post-trade services . we consider our operations to constitute a single business segment because of the highly integrated nature of these product and services , of the financial markets in which we compete and of our worldwide business activities . we believe that results by geographic region or client sector are not necessarily meaningful in understanding our business . see note 13 to the consolidated financial statements included in item 8 of this annual report on form 10-k for certain geographic information about the company 's business required by u.s. gaap . results of operations year ended december 31 , 2016 compared to year ended december 31 , 2015 overview total revenues increased by $ 66.8 million or 22.0 % to $ 369.9 million for the year ended december 31 , 2016 from $ 303.1 million for the year ended december 31 , 2015. this increase in total revenues was primarily due to an increase in commission revenue of $ 66.1 million . an 11.8 % change in the average foreign currency exchange rates of the british pound sterling compared to the u.s. dollar from 2015 compared to 2016 had the effect of decreasing revenues by $ 5.9 million for the year ended december 31 , 2016. total expenses increased by $ 23.1 million or 14.9 % to $ 178.3 million for the year ended december 31 , 2016 from $ 155.2 million for the year ended december 31 , 2015. this increase was primarily due to higher employee compensation and benefits of $ 12.9 million , professional and consulting fees of $ 4.1 million , marketing and advertising costs of $ 2.8 million , general and administrative costs of $ 2.6 million and technology and communication expenses of $ 1.4 million . the change in the average foreign currency exchange rates had the effect of decreasing expenses by $ 5.9 million for the year ended december 31 , 2016. income before taxes increased by $ 43.7 million or 29.5 % to $ 191.6 million for the year ended december 31 , 2016 from $ 147.9 million for the year ended december 31 , 2015. net income increased by $ 30.1 million or 31.4 % to $ 126.2 million for the year ended december 31 , 2016 from $ 96.0 million for the year ended december 31 , 2015. revenues our revenues for the years ended december 31 , 2016 and 2015 , and the resulting dollar and percentage changes , were as follows : replace_table_token_3_th 49 commissions our commission revenues for the years ended december 31 , 2016 and 2015 , and the resulting dollar and percentage changes , were as follows : replace_table_token_4_th variable transaction fees the following table shows the extent to which the increase in variable commissions for the year ended december 31 , 2016 was attributable to changes in transaction volumes and variable transaction fees per million : replace_table_token_5_th our trading volume for each of the years presented was as follows : replace_table_token_6_th for volume reporting purposes , transactions in foreign currencies are converted to u.s. dollars at average monthly rates . the 26.5 % increase in our u.s. high-grade volume was principally due to an increase in our estimated market share of adjusted total u.s. high-grade corporate bond volume as reported by financial industry regulatory authority ( “ finra ” ) trade reporting and compliance engine ( “ trace ” ) from 14.6 % for the year ended december 31 , 2015 to 16.0 % for the year ended december 31 , 2016 , coupled with an increase in overall market volume as measured by trace . we adjusted the reported u.s. high-grade trace volumes to eliminate the increased reporting of affiliate back-to-back trades by certain broker-dealers that occurred from april 2014 through october 2015. adjusted u.s. high-grade trace volume

liquidity and capital resources during the past three years , we have met our funding requirements through cash on hand and internally generated funds . cash and cash equivalents and investments totaled $ 362.6 million at december 31 , 2016. in january 2013 , we entered into a three-year credit agreement that provided for revolving loans and letters of credit up to an aggregate of $ 50.0 million . in october 2015 , we entered into an amended and restated credit agreement ( the “ credit agreement ” ) increasing the borrowing capacity to an aggregate of $ 100 million , including a $ 5.0 million sub-limit for standby letters of credit . the credit agreement will mature in october 2017. as of december 31 , 2016 , we had $ 0.9 million in letters of credit outstanding and $ 99.1 million in available borrowing capacity under the credit agreement . subject to satisfaction of certain specified conditions , we are permitted to upsize the borrowing capacity under the credit agreement by an additional $ 50.0 million . during the past three years , our cash flows were as follows : replace_table_token_17_th cash flows for the year ended december 31 , 2016 compared to year ended december 31 , 2015 the $ 39.9 million decrease in net cash provided by operating activities was primarily due to an increase in corporate debt trading investments of $ 74.2 million , offset by an increase in net income of $ 30.1 million and a decrease in working capital of $ 3.9 million . the $ 15.2 million increase in net cash used in investing activities was attributable to an increase in net purchases of securities available-for-sale of $ 24.3 million , an increase in capital expenditures of $ 3.1 million offset by proceeds from sales and maturities and other investing activities of $ 12.2 million .


 Write a concise suspicious activity report of the following text delimited by triple backquotes. Return your response as a formal report which covers the key points highlighting the location,dates,entity names and account holder information in chronological order of the text.
     ```liquidity and capital resources during the past three years , we have met our funding requirements through cash on hand and internally generated funds . cash and cash equivalents and investments totaled $ 362.6 million at december 31 , 2016. in january 2013 , we entered into a three-year credit agreement that provided for revolving loans and letters of credit up to an aggregate of $ 50.0 million . in october 2015 , we entered into an amended and restated credit agreement ( the “ credit agreement ” ) increasing the borrowing capacity to an aggregate of $ 100 million , including a $ 5.0 million sub-limit for standby letters of credit . the credit agreement will mature in october 2017. as of december 31 , 2016 , we had $ 0.9 million in letters of credit outstanding and $ 99.1 million in available borrowing capacity under the credit agreement . subject to satisfaction of certain specified conditions , we are permitted to upsize the borrowing capacity under the credit agreement by an additional $ 50.0 million . during the past three years , our cash flows were as follows : replace_table_token_17_th cash flows for the year ended december 31 , 2016 compared to year ended december 31 , 2015 the $ 39.9 million decrease in net cash provided by operating activities was primarily due to an increase in corporate debt trading investments of $ 74.2 million , offset by an increase in net income of $ 30.1 million and a decrease in working capital of $ 3.9 million . the $ 15.2 million increase in net cash used in investing activities was attributable to an increase in net purchases of securities available-for-sale of $ 24.3 million , an increase in capital expenditures of $ 3.1 million offset by proceeds from sales and maturities and other investing activities of $ 12.2 million .
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 Suspicious Activity Report : that our electronic trading platform is more fully integrated into the workflow of our broker-dealer and institutional investor clients and to continue to add functionality to allow our clients to achieve a fully automated end-to-end straight-through processing solution ( automation from trade initiation to settlement ) ; to add new content and analytical capabilities to bondticker and expand axess all , the first intra-day trade tape for the european fixed income market , and our other data service offerings provided by trax ® to improve the value of the information we provide to our clients ; and to continue to increase and supplement our internal growth by entering into strategic alliances , or acquiring businesses or technologies that will enable us to enter new markets , provide new products or services , or otherwise enhance the value of our platform to our clients . for example , the acquisition of xtrakter limited ( “ xtrakter ” ) in february 2013 provided us with an expanded set of technology solutions ahead of incoming pre-and post-trade transparency mandates from mifid ii 43 in europe . in recent years , we entered into , and expanded , a strate gic alliance with blackrock , inc. ( “ blackrock ” ) to combine blackrock 's order flow with our open trading solution to improve the range of trading connections available to credit market participants in the u.s. , europe and asia . in 2016 , we entered into an agreement with s & p dow jones indices to jointly develop indices that will track the most liquid segments of the u.s. corporate bond market . critical factors affecting our industry and our company economic , political and market factors the global fixed-income securities industry is risky and volatile and is directly affected by a number of economic , political and market factors that may result in declining trading volume . these factors could have a material adverse effect on our business , financial condition and results of operations . these factors include , among others , credit market conditions , the current interest rate environment , including the volatility of interest rates and investors ' forecasts of future interest rates , economic and political conditions in the united states , europe and elsewhere , and the consolidation or contraction of our broker-dealer clients . in 2016 , our business faced a challenging macro environment which we attribute to a number of cyclical factors , including accommodative monetary policies by several major central banks , including the federal reserve and the european central bank . these monetary policies have resulted in historically low levels of volatility and interest rates across most of the fixed income markets . the global credit markets have also faced structural issues in recent years , such as trading limits imposed by the volcker rule , increased bank capital requirements under basel iii and the quantitative easing program of the european central bank . following the u.s. presidential election in november , however , the global credit markets experienced a significant shift in sentiment and increased volatility with the expectation of an upward trend in interest rates and inflation . competitive landscape the global fixed-income securities industry generally , and the electronic financial services markets in which we engage in particular , are highly competitive , and we expect competition to intensify in the future . sources of competition for us will continue to include , among others , bond trading conducted directly between broker-dealers and their institutional investor clients over the telephone or electronically and other multi-dealer or all-to-all trading platforms . competitors , including companies in which some of our broker-dealer clients have invested , have developed or acquired electronic trading platforms or have announced their intention to explore the development of electronic platforms or information networks that may compete with us . in general , we compete on the basis of a number of key factors , including , among others , the liquidity provided on our platform , the magnitude and frequency of price improvement enabled by our platform and the quality and speed of execution . we believe that our ability to grow volumes and revenues will largely depend on our performance with respect to these factors . our competitive position is also enhanced by the familiarity and integration of our broker-dealer and institutional investor clients with our electronic trading platform and other systems . we have focused on the unique aspects of the credit markets we serve in the development of our platform , working closely with our clients to provide a system that is suited to their needs . regulatory environment our industry has been and is subject to continuous regulatory changes and may become subject to new regulations or changes in the interpretation or enforcement of existing regulations , which could require us to incur significant costs . following the global financial crisis and other recent events in the financial industry , governments and regulators in both the united states and europe called for increased regulation and transparency in the over-the-counter markets . as a result , the dodd-frank act was signed into law in july 2010. among the most significant requirements of the derivatives section of the dodd-frank act are mandatory clearing of certain derivative instruments ( “ swaps ” ) through regulated central clearing organizations and mandatory trading of those instruments through either regulated exchanges or swap execution facilities ( “ sefs ” ) , in each case , subject to certain key exceptions . marketaxess sef corporation , our wholly-owned u.s. subsidiary , operates as a sef for the trading of certain index swaps . the sec has not yet finalized its rules for security-based sefs , nor has it published a timetable for the finalization and implementation of such rules . story_separator_special_tag the effect on deferred tax assets and liabilities of a change in tax rates is recognized in income in the period that includes the enactment date . a valuation allowance is recognized against deferred tax assets if it is more likely than not that such assets will not be realized in future years . we recognize interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits in general and administrative expenses in our consolidated statements of operations . business combinations , goodwill and intangible assets business combinations are accounted for under the purchase method of accounting . the total cost of an acquisition is allocated to the underlying net assets based on their respective estimated fair values . the excess of the purchase price over the estimated fair values of the net assets acquired is recorded as goodwill . determining the fair value of certain assets acquired and liabilities assumed is judgmental in nature and often involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions , including assumptions with respect to future cash flows , discount rates , growth rates and asset lives . we operate as a single reporting unit . subsequent to an acquisition , goodwill no longer retains its identification with a particular acquisition , but instead becomes identifiable with the entire reporting unit . as a result , all of our fair value is available to support the value of goodwill . an impairment review of goodwill is performed on an annual basis , at year-end , or more frequently if circumstances change . intangible assets with definite lives , including purchased technologies , customer relationships and other intangible assets , are amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives , ranging from three to 15 years . intangible assets are assessed for impairment when events or circumstances indicate the existence of a possible impairment . recent accounting pronouncements see note 2 to the consolidated financial statements included in item 8 of this annual report on form 10-k for a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements . 48 segment results we operate an electronic multi-party platform for the trading of fixed-income securities and provide related data , analytics , compliance tools and post-trade services . we consider our operations to constitute a single business segment because of the highly integrated nature of these product and services , of the financial markets in which we compete and of our worldwide business activities . we believe that results by geographic region or client sector are not necessarily meaningful in understanding our business . see note 13 to the consolidated financial statements included in item 8 of this annual report on form 10-k for certain geographic information about the company 's business required by u.s. gaap . results of operations year ended december 31 , 2016 compared to year ended december 31 , 2015 overview total revenues increased by $ 66.8 million or 22.0 % to $ 369.9 million for the year ended december 31 , 2016 from $ 303.1 million for the year ended december 31 , 2015. this increase in total revenues was primarily due to an increase in commission revenue of $ 66.1 million . an 11.8 % change in the average foreign currency exchange rates of the british pound sterling compared to the u.s. dollar from 2015 compared to 2016 had the effect of decreasing revenues by $ 5.9 million for the year ended december 31 , 2016. total expenses increased by $ 23.1 million or 14.9 % to $ 178.3 million for the year ended december 31 , 2016 from $ 155.2 million for the year ended december 31 , 2015. this increase was primarily due to higher employee compensation and benefits of $ 12.9 million , professional and consulting fees of $ 4.1 million , marketing and advertising costs of $ 2.8 million , general and administrative costs of $ 2.6 million and technology and communication expenses of $ 1.4 million . the change in the average foreign currency exchange rates had the effect of decreasing expenses by $ 5.9 million for the year ended december 31 , 2016. income before taxes increased by $ 43.7 million or 29.5 % to $ 191.6 million for the year ended december 31 , 2016 from $ 147.9 million for the year ended december 31 , 2015. net income increased by $ 30.1 million or 31.4 % to $ 126.2 million for the year ended december 31 , 2016 from $ 96.0 million for the year ended december 31 , 2015. revenues our revenues for the years ended december 31 , 2016 and 2015 , and the resulting dollar and percentage changes , were as follows : replace_table_token_3_th 49 commissions our commission revenues for the years ended december 31 , 2016 and 2015 , and the resulting dollar and percentage changes , were as follows : replace_table_token_4_th variable transaction fees the following table shows the extent to which the increase in variable commissions for the year ended december 31 , 2016 was attributable to changes in transaction volumes and variable transaction fees per million : replace_table_token_5_th our trading volume for each of the years presented was as follows : replace_table_token_6_th for volume reporting purposes , transactions in foreign currencies are converted to u.s. dollars at average monthly rates . the 26.5 % increase in our u.s. high-grade volume was principally due to an increase in our estimated market share of adjusted total u.s. high-grade corporate bond volume as reported by financial industry regulatory authority ( “ finra ” ) trade reporting and compliance engine ( “ trace ” ) from 14.6 % for the year ended december 31 , 2015 to 16.0 % for the year ended december 31 , 2016 , coupled with an increase in overall market volume as measured by trace . we adjusted the reported u.s. high-grade trace volumes to eliminate the increased reporting of affiliate back-to-back trades by certain broker-dealers that occurred from april 2014 through october 2015. adjusted u.s. high-grade trace volume

