Japanese bank Mizuho is planning to integrate its two London- based derivatives businesses, establishing a new interest rate swaps trading platform for Europe.
Mizuho Capital Markets, the bank’s market-making platform for vanilla swaps, will be combined with Mizuho International’s newly-formed interest rate swaps trading desk, in order to offer a broader range of derivatives trading services.
“With the addition of an integrated vanilla derivatives offering, we are confident that a competitive new platform will enable us to be a more relevant and valued counterparty to our clients,” says Michiel de Jong, president and CEO of Mizuho International.
Full integration of the platform is set to be completed by next year.
The plans are part of the bank’s expansion in the European OTC derivatives market, after it became a clearing member of LCH’s SwapClear earlier this year.
The Japanese bank’s expansion in interest rate derivatives comes amid greater uncertainty in fixed income divisions amongst European banks, which have scaled back their market making and clearing businesses.