09 October 2007
 

Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and GFI Group Inc., are now live and using SwapsWire for electronic trade notification for OTC equity derivative transactions in North America. This completes the global rollout of equity derivatives for Cantor Fitzgerald and GFI. Cantor Fitzgerald is live with SwapsWire globally for equity derivatives in their Hong Kong, London, Paris, Zurich, and New York offices. GFI is live with equities and interest rate derivatives in Paris, London and New York.

SwapsWire allows all parties to a trade to affirm and legally confirm the transaction within minutes of execution. Inter-dealer brokers use SwapsWire to send real time electronic notification to dealers, providing a standard STP mechanism integrated with legal confirmation.

Jason Bodner, Cantor Fitzgerald's Director US Equity Derivatives, said, "SwapsWire has been invaluable for us and our customers, simplifying the confirmation process so we can concentrate on making the trade. SwapsWire's US release complements our global OTC trade flow in equity derivatives. The efficiency achieved by using the service will further help us increase our trading activity and volume in the OTC markets around the world."

Chris Burbidge, GFI's Strategic Program Manager for North America, said, "We are pleased to offer our equity derivative customers the opportunity to receive trade data through the SwapsWire network. SwapsWire represents another viable solution for our clients to realize the benefits of straight through processing and is consistent with GFI's strategy of integrating best-of-breed services where possible."

Because SwapsWire's trade representations are complete trade records delivered with speed and accuracy, misunderstandings are caught immediately at execution. Dealing banks straight-through-process trades directly into their risk systems eliminating booking errors and greatly reducing processing costs. SwapsWire also improves market efficiency by standardizing and clarifying complete trade terms, saving the broker from negotiating each term with the counterparties on each deal.

Chip Carver, SwapsWire's CEO, said, "Today we have 37 broker-dealers active on SwapsWire. We are pleased to be leading the way in the OTC equity derivative market, where there are already 21 banks and 29 interdealer brokers using the service for interbank and bank to client business."

Background:

In May 2007, 18 Dealers updated regulators on their progress to improve the efficiency of the equity derivatives market. Dealers committed to process at least 70% of eligible transactions between major dealers through electronic platforms during September and October 2007. They have committed to increasing this to 80% in November. In addition, the Dealers have committed to use all applicable new products on the platforms within 60 days of the product launch. Many dealers are already confirming equity derivative trades with buy-side clients on SwapsWire today, with the number of clients expected to grow rapidly. Buy-side clients enjoy use of SwapsWire free of charge.

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, inflation swaps, credit default swaps, equity/index 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, CDC Ixis Capital Markets, 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.

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

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