Investment firm Citadel has begun using Bloomberg’s fixed income trading platform for electronic trading and clearing of interest rate swaps (IRS) ahead of new regulation in the US.
The Bloomberg solution offers Citadel execution capabilities and direct access to clearers, streamlining the trading cycle and meeting new regulatory requirements. Citadel executed its first IRS trades via Bloomberg on Monday, with Deutsche Bank acting as the executing broker.
New rules governing swaps under the Dodd-Frank Act mandate the central clearing of swaps, which will also be traded on exchange-like venues called swap execution facilities (SEFs).
“Our investment activity requires a world-class platform that delivers the very best in market liquidity and streamlined, front-to-back, straight-through processing,” said Richard Mazzella, chief operating officer of Citadel’s global fixed income business. “Bloomberg’s platform provides this powerful combination, strengthening the quality and efficiency of our vanilla interest rate swap activities to the benefit of our investors.”
Bloomberg has provided access to clearing houses through the Bloomberg Professional service since 2009, including CME Clearing, IntercontinentalExchange and LCH.Clearnet.
Bloomberg intends to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a SEF, to garner increased swaps execution flow.