CME announced Wednesday that it has acquired Swapstream as part of its effort to expand its presence in the over-the-counter interest rate derivatives market.
CME will operate Swapstream as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the exchange and will remain based in London.
“The acquisition of Swapstream is part of CME’s strategy to further leverage our transaction processing capabilities and attract new customers to our products and follows on our other OTC initiatives,” says CME Chairman Terry Duffy. “CME and Swapstream will bring greater operational and processing efficiencies to the global interest rate swap market while providing added value for our shareholders.”
Swapstream’s inter-dealer platform, it says, provides users with the flexibility that comes from trading interest rate swaps and by facilitating communication among multiple banks, brokers or both, allowing them to build their own marketplaces and distribute their liquidity.