14 November 2002
 

Fourteen banks and brokers have started booking interest rate swap trades through the SwapsWire network in Europe and the USA. A number of other banks and brokers have signed up and are making preparations to join in the coming weeks and months.
“The launch has been a great success following a concerted effort by the key players in the industry, with $53bn notional value having been booked already. These banks are already reaping the rewards of reduced risk of errors and lower processing costs”, said Chip Carver, CEO of SwapsWire.

SwapsWire lets traders reconcile and legally affirm trade details with each other and, where applicable, with brokers within minutes of execution. This is in contrast with the manual labour intensive process non-SwapsWire trades must follow. These non-SwapsWire trades can routinely take days before documentation is completed between counterparties. In addition participants avoid the potential losses resulting from input errors which are not immediately identified. Finally, the cost of processing and documenting trades is also greatly reduced.

Michael Davie, Managing Director at JPMorgan said “We’re thrilled that the system is now operational, after a great deal of work by the dealing community to bring us to this point. We are now booking 100% of our eligible trade volume through SwapsWire and already seeing the benefits.”

David Casterton, Managing Director of Intercapital Europe Ltd. a subsidiary of ICAP, noted “ICAP is now confirming all eligible trades through SwapsWire. We’re pleased to be offering this sophisticated tool to our clients along with a number of other STP initiatives across our product range.” ICAP is the world’s largest interdealer broker.

In addition to expanding participation in Europe and the USA, banks in Asia will start using the platform from next year.

About SwapsWire

SwapsWire is owned by a consortium of 21 leading derivatives dealers: Bank of America, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., Barclays Bank, Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank, BNP Paribas, Calyon, Citigroup, IXIS Corporate and Investment Bank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC Bank Plc, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Mizuho Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and UBS Investment Bank. For more information on SwapsWire, visit www.swapswire.com

Press enquiries: contact Henry Hunter, SwapsWire on +44 (0) 20 7868 2451.

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