Trading platforms strike deal with LiquidityHub

The agreement means the liquidity of the consortium’s 15 banks will eventually be accessible to others in the interest rate swap and US Treasury bond markets via the Reuters and Bloomberg platforms. LiquidityHub previously said it anticipates a launch in mid-2007. It is also planning to introduce a new electronic trading protocol, ‘Request for Stream’, over which buy-side firms would be able to view real-time executable prices rather than static ones.

Robert MacLeod, the venture’s chief executive, said: “Electronic trading in the fixed-income markets continues to grow in importance with dealers and their clients, and we believe the interest rate swap market is the next logical place for electronic trading to have a meaningful impact.”

LiquidityHub aims to pool the fixed-income liquidity of major dealers electronically. It now consists of 15 US and European banks, with the addition of ABN Amro, HSBC and Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking. LiquidityHub said it plans to expand its remit to encompass European government bonds at a later date, and is expected to broaden its scope still further.

The group was formed in July 2006, after banks’ negotiations with Bloomberg for a similar electronic liquidity-aggregation scheme broke down. The data provider had spearheaded the initial drive to pool liquidity in interest rate swaps, although its revived involvement sees it in a more modest role.

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• Topics
• ABN Amro
• Bloomberg
• HSBC
• Reuters
• Societe Generale
• Infrastructure
• Foreign exchange