31 October 2006
 

Following the successful launch of its equity option confirmation service in Japan, SwapsWire announced today that this service will be extended to Asia (ex-Japan) markets from November 20th, and support for share and index variance swaps will be added in Japan. The service will be rolled-out to the USA in the first quarter of 2007.

SwapsWire already supports share and index options and share and index variance swaps in Europe, where the service has been live since May 2005, after receiving backing from 12 major dealers (Barclays, BNP Paribas, Calyon, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Societe Generale and UBS).

After a meeting of global regulators in September, attention has turned to the level of outstanding documentation for OTC equity derivative trades, with uptake of automation initiatives such as SwapsWire expected to be a key part of the drive to improve efficiency. SwapsWire is working with global dealers to ensure that rollout of products and services are aligned with the focus on standardized documentation, another element of the efficiency drive.

Karen Newton, Director and Global Head of OTC Derivative Operations at Credit-Suisse in London said, "SwapsWire has been a very effective clearing tool for us in Europe and Japan. Trades booked over SwapsWire begin as already-confirmed trades in our trade capture systems, so by definition never even hit the outstanding confirmations queue. We are pleased the system is expanding throughout the Asia region, an important market for the equity derivatives product."

Buy-side clients are able to access the system free of charge using secure web-browser technology. Buy-side volumes have been increasing rapidly on SwapsWire. The first buy-side equity options trades went through in August, led by CQS Management and Societe Generale. A wide range of buy-side clients use SwapsWire to confirm, allocate, novate and give-up trades in real time. The client base is global, and consists of hedge funds, asset managers and other financial institutions.

About SwapsWire

Since 2002, the SwapsWire system has been automating legal confirmation, trade capture, and broker confirmation for multiple OTC derivatives products including interest rate swaps, forward rate agreements, overnight index swaps, caps, floors, swaptions, credit default swaps, equity options and variance swaps. Today hundreds of sell-side, buy-side, and inter-dealer broker sites in Europe, Asia and the USA use the system.

SwapsWire supports trade workflow of all types, with integrated trade-date legal confirmation, avoiding the traditional need to separate trade-date workflow/checkout from legal confirmation. Workflows supported include:
- Inter-dealer broker STP and confirmation
- Trade Capture
- Legal confirmation
- Prime Brokerage (Give-Up)
- Amendments, terminations, option exercise, corporate actions
- Allocations
- Novations

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

Media Contacts:
SwapsWire Henry Hunter +44 (0)20 7071 0119
Amy Mihalakis 07970 050 828

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