Prebon builds bridge to SwapsWire

Institutional broker Prebon Yamane is going live this week with a system, developed in-house, that allows traders to have direct links to the SwapsWire online platform, according to officials at the firm, based in London. Swapswire, owned by a consortium of 23 banks, officially launched last week as a network provider for electronic booking and confirmation of trades.

For the past year, Prebon has been developing its Global Broking System (GBS), which enables traders to input transactions at the point of trade and communicate directly to SwapsWire. GBS can also be used to connect to platforms other than SwapsWire.

SwapsWire was originally set to launch in the first quarter of 2001 as an electronic inter-dealer swaps trading platform, but it was repeatedly delayed by unidentified software glitches and regulatory conflicts. The revamped SwapsWire developed a platform to act as a non-execution confirmation conduit for swaps processing.

Prebon's UK and US swaps trades are now using GBS to communicate among internal systems and for generating electronic confirmations directly to clients via the SwapsWire network, said Geoffrey Sanderson, chief executive of Prebon’s IT subsidiary Kinetech.

GBS was rolled out in London and New York in March with an application program interface for banks to connect to the system.

Of Prebon’s 350 brokers in London and 250 brokers in New York, around 200 are using GBS, which covers interest rate and basis swaps, cash trading and forward rate agreements. Approximately half of these brokers will be using Swapswire. Support for forex forwards will be added this month.

After the initial rollout, the broker plans to extend the GBS to the rest of its locations worldwide. By the end of next year, the majority of Prebon’s brokers will be using GBS, Sanderson added.