Thomson TradeWeb says Lehman Brothers will be a liquidity provider on its electronic Euro Interest Rate Swaps platform. Lehman Brothers is an active market maker in interest rate derivatives.
“Electronic connectivity to our clients on a leading competitive IRS trading platform augments our growing Fixed Income Franchise franchise in Europe,” says Thomas Siegmund, Head of Interest Rates Trading at Lehman Brothers. “A multi-dealer platform with proven technology, covering the complete trade cycle, is a natural choice for Lehman Brothers.”
Thomson reckons the firm’s endorsement of electronic Interest Rate Swaps trading in the dealer-to-client space underscores the growing market demand for its technology. The founding members are JP Morgan, Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, HSBC and ABN AMRO. Thomson Tradeweb says more dealers are preparing to join the system.
TradeWeb also announced that its IRS platform has been expanded to offer forward starting interest rate swaps and off-benchmark swaps. Using TradeWeb Swaps ‘request for quote’ (RFQ) model, institutional investors can now tailor their transaction beyond plain vanilla swaps to incorporate specific termination dates and other parameters. TradeWeb claims to be the only electronic multi-dealer system to offer this new functionality. It is also integrated with ISDA confirmation functionality, which Thomson says provides reductions in operational risk and improvements in operational efficiency.
“Electronic Swaps trading has been rapidly accepted across the buy- and sell-side markets, and we are very pleased to count Lehman Brothers among our leading liquidity providers,” says Lee Olesky, President of Thomson TradeWeb. “Our initial group of buy-side customers has more than doubled since we launched the interest rate swaps platform in February, and we expect to have some 100 customers across Europe by the end of the year. Additionally, we remain on track for adding other currencies and enhancing functionality further in the coming months.”
Guido Behrendt, Head of Asset Swaps at Deutsche Postbank AG, adds that TradeWeb is establishing itself “as an important tool for us when trading interest rate swaps.”