Splitting the market

An industry-wide attempt to get the major derivatives players behind a single electronic interest rate swaps platform has broken down, with 11 banks forming a breakaway venture called LiquidityHub. Will the fracturing of liquidity slow the development of electronic swaps trading? Duncan Wood investigates

When Bloomberg SwapTrader launched in March last year, it became the first electronic platform to link multiple dealers to interest rate swap customers such as corporates, institutional investors and hedge funds. During the second half of the year, SwapTrader moved to consolidate its first-mover advantage by inking a deal with a consortium of 16 dealers that included all the major names in the world of interest rate derivatives. The idea was to spin SwapTrader out of Bloomberg and incorporate it