Bloomberg announced today that its multi-asset swap Execution facility, Bloomberg SEF LLC, executed more than $6.6 trillion in transactions during its first year of operation. Since the CFTC’s SEF rules went into effect on October 2, 2013, nearly 150,000 trades were completed on Bloomberg SEF across its multiple asset classes.
Credit default Swaps (CDS) and interest rate swaps (IRS) comprised the vast majority of Bloomberg SEF transactions. Approximately 85,000 CDS transactions totaling $3.45 trillion and 48,000 IRS transactions totaling $3.15 trillion were executed on Bloomberg SEF in the past year. More than 11,000 FX derivatives trades were completed for a total of $59.78 billion. Commodities derivatives were the least traded instruments with 518 trades totaling nearly $2 billion.
According to Bloomberg, although request-for-quote trading still dominates the market, participants recently began using order book trading with increased frequency, with Bloomberg SEF the only swap execution facility to allow entirely anonymous order book trading from execution through post-trade confirmation.
In addition to the SEF, Bloomberg also launched its swap data repository (SDR) earlier this year, a centralized recordkeeping facility that provides a solution to collect, store and publicly disseminate multi-asset derivatives trading data. Moving forward, Bloomberg’s global strategy includes registering as a European multilateral trading facility (MTF) in compliance with MiFID and EMIR guidelines, and expanding solutions in Asia as regulations in the region evolve.
“We are pleased with the participation levels and sustained growth of Bloomberg SEF in the first year of operation,” said Ben Macdonald, Bloomberg's Global Head of Product and President of Bloomberg SEF LLC. “Our customers expect best-in-class execution services to help them succeed in an evolving regulatory landscape in the U.S. and around the world. We look forward to expanding our global solutions into Europe and Asia to meet the needs of our global customer base.”
