Swapstream, the electronic trading platform for medium and long term interest rate swaps (IRS), has added futures crossing functionality to its market leading platform through a link with Eurex. It says the new functionality will allow its members to execute IRS swap orders with a fully automated futures cross (Bund, Bobl or Schatz). “This fully automatic futures crossing functionality marks a significant step forward for the swaps industry, advancing us from the current manual process involving multiple parties,” says Stephane Rio, CEO at Swapstream.
“This falls into Swapstream’s commitment to delivering the very best technology; by incorporating futures crossing capabilities into the platform, we added another facet to our successful enhancement of the voice trading environment with relevant automated resources.” “The market is now primarily trading swaps with a future cross, with this activity representing nearly two-thirds of the dealer to dealer medium and long term IRS market,” adds Jan Kloosterboer, Head of Euro Interest Rate Swaps at ABN AMRO.
“Approaches such as Swapstream’s help to remove outright interest rate risk and make electronic trading much easier and more efficient.” Swapstream claims to provide the largest electronic liquidity pool (EUR800 million on bid and offer per maturity) with the tightest bid-offer spreads in the electronic IRS market from 1 to 50 years.