Bloomberg, the leading data, analytics and news provider, today announced that the Bloomberg SwapTrader platform, available via the Bloomberg Professional service, now allows users to customize swaps on the multi-dealer interest rate derivative platform.
Using SwapTrader, Bloomberg customers can change both the effective and/or maturity dates of the swap, creating structures that most precisely match their investment needs.
As with the standard tenors, a request for quote can be sent to up to 3 dealers. In addition, the completed trade is integrated with Bloomberg's Swap Manager functionality for a unique and seamless combination of execution and analytics.
"This development has been requested by end-money customers who have specific funding requirements and want to prove best execution in a multi-dealer trading platform," according to Russel Levi of Bloomberg.
Bloomberg SwapTrader, the first live multi-dealer request-for-quote (RFQ) trading system for the interest rate swaps market, continues to be strengthened by the addition of liquidity providers. Calyon is the latest dealer to join the platform, bringing the total to 12 banks including ABN Amro, Bank of America, Barclays Capital, Calyon, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, HSBC, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland and Societe Generale.
Continual product enhancements, together with increased depth of liquidity, contributed to a record-breaking one-week volume of $47 billion in swaps traded on Bloomberg SwapTrader during a single week in March 2006. In addition 27 new customers used the platform for the first time in March 2006. This record increase reflects the accelerating use of electronic trading of derivatives in 2006.
Currently the Bloomberg SwapTrader platform offers electronic trading in vanilla swaps denominated in US$ and Euro currencies. Bloomberg users are able to obtain pricing quotes simultaneously from up to three banks and then execute the trade seamlessly at the best quoted price. Using straight-through processing (STP), trade confirmation is handled electronically to improve efficiency and reduce the risk of pricing and trading error. Trade data is readily accessible to allow easy integration into a customer's settlement and risk management systems. Bloomberg SwapTrader is accessible to all Bloomberg users on the Bloomberg Professional service.