Securities finance specialist, EquiLend, will be launching its Swaptimization platform in the autumn for financial institutions in the European Union.
The EU launch of Swaptimization, which uses a proprietary matching algorithm to pair natural positions across market participants, in order to facilitate bilateral security-based total return swaps (TRS), follows launch of the regulated platform for the US swaps market in 2019.
EquiLend is now in the final stages of securing regulatory approval from the Central Bank of Ireland to operate Swaptimization as an organized trading facility (OTF), which will enable EU-based institutions to trade on the platform.
Operating as a regulated platform provides assurance to participants that robust oversight is in place. EquiLend systems are regulated in jurisdictions around the globe.
In advance of the EU launch, Swaptimization has had new features added including credit approvals and hedging notifications to counterparties, smart allocations in general collateral (GC) funding baskets and improved audit trail features.
Additionally, EquiLend has appointed Matthew Zienau, a swaps and equity finance expert with more than 30 years of experience at firms including Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Citibank and Pershing, as Swaps Product Specialist based in London. Zienau will report to Matt Collins, head of Swaptimization and EquiLend Clearing Services, and Rowena Brown, head of trading EMEA & APAC at EquiLend.
Brian Lamb, CEO of EquiLend, said, “EquiLend has transformed the global securities finance industry through technological efficiencies and in building an extensive network of market participants over our more than 20 years in fintech. We are excited to extend our solutions to the swaps community in Europe and to bring automation to the market in the region.”
Matt Zienau, Swaps Product Specialist at EquiLend, said, “I am thrilled to be joining EquiLend at a pivotal moment for the swaps industry as the firm continues its strategy of bringing automation to the global swaps markets. The continued expansion of Swaptimization marks a new era for TRS, a market in critical need of operational efficiency, automated workflow and regulatory certainty.”
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