BGC Partners, an intermediary to the wholesale financial markets, has completed its first fully electronic Euro interest rate swap transactions over its hybrid voice and electronic execution platform, BGC Trader IRS, which went live on 1 September.
BGC Trader IRS is an extension of BGC’s hybrid technology platform, which has already been deployed and used in over 50 BGC products across credit, rates, foreign exchange, equities and commodities.
The BGC Trader IRS platform incorporates the Volume Match tool, an auction-style functionality which enables customers to transact a wide range of products fully electronically.
Elie El Hayek, managing director, global head of rates global banking markets at HSBC, says: “In recognising that technology has a key role to play in improving trading efficiency in the markets, we are supporting ‘BGC Trader IRS’ which went live on 1 September for Euro IRS. BGC’s initiative will promote liquidity and transparency at a time when market participants are keen to address the need for reduced operational and systemic risk.”
Shaun Lynn, president, BGC Partners, says: “The addition of fully electronic Euro interest rate swaps is a key continuation of our strategy to support BGC’s strong voice franchise with the BGC Trader and eSpeed technologies. Over the past year, the number of desks offering fully electronic services to our clients has more than doubled.”
