US bank Wells Fargo will provide liquidity and clearing services for clients executing swap futures trades on Eris Exchange.
The bank recently executed its first swap future on the exchange and will offer support for customer clearing of Eris products in addition to access to the market operator’s electronic central limit order book, SwapBook.
Neal Brady, CEO of Eris Exchange, welcomed the bank and anticipated a growth in Eris’ swap futures offering when central clearing for OTC derivatives becomes mandatory.
“Adding Wells Fargo to our existing group of liquidity providers brings deeper and more liquid markets to our end user clients and will significantly accelerate the recent increases in volume and open interest we have seen as the Dodd-Frank deadline for mandatory swaps trading approaches,” he said.
Eris will look to leverage buy-side hesitation to engaging in swaps trading on recently launched swap execution facilities. Recent figures from the exchange suggest interest in swap futures – launched last October by Eris and rivals CME Group and IntercontinentalExchange – continue to gain traction in the market.
Eris figures for end Q3 showed a 200% increase in open interest from Q4 2012 to 63,000 contracts, which also marked 111% growth throughout Q3.
Recent speculation has also suggested the exchange operator will open swap futures trading in Europe. Three key backers of the exchange, Morgan Stanley, Fidelity and State Street all have a strong presence across the Atlantic, which could facilitate any European ambitions.