LIFFE is launching its two, five and ten-year Swapnote® contracts with the committed support of Garban-Intercapital plc and four designated market makers.
A swap provides an exchange of fixed for floating interest rates and is used as a means to manage interest rate risk. The Swap market is the largest and fastest growing market in the world being worth $48 trillion in 2000. Liquidity in the Euro swap market is now greater than in government bonds and consequently the swap market has now become the benchmark yield curve. LIFFE's Euro Swapnote® futures will afford the European swap market the same hedging and trading opportunities that have become standard in the European bond markets and will also add a new futures dimension to trading. Two, five and ten-year contracts will be available.
