Interdealer broker - Icap

It was good fortune rather than foresight, insists the founding father of Icap, Michael Spencer, that propelled his four-man band to the forefront of derivatives broking. But while the interdealer broker was perhaps fortunate in spotting an opportunity in the new interest rates swaps market, it was the innovative way it did business that determined its success.

By 1986, when Intercapital was founded, investment banks had already convinced many of their biggest corporate customers of the value