The TRADE 88 - Q2 2026 | Page 25

[ T H O U G H T L E A D E R S H I P | T R A D E W E B ]
optimise processes and improve execution outcomes as markets become more interconnected and data-intensive.
Angus McDiarmid
Integrated execution capabilities became more important, combining automation, dealer liquidity, data and analytics within a single workflow.
How is Tradeweb evolving its swaps offering to support this next generation of systematic trading? McDiarmid: A key focus is expanding execution choice while maintaining flexibility for clients. We continue to invest across multiple protocols and execution models, from request-for-quote( RFQ) and request-for-market( RFM), to dealer algorithms and AiEX. Clients increasingly want to express views across products and markets rather than treating swaps trading in isolation.
That evolution has also been reflected in market breadth. Tradeweb facilitates swaps trading across 28 currencies globally, compared with just three when the platform launched in 2005.
We’ re also working with clients to extend electronification into historically manual areas, including bilateral swaps and uncleared products such as swaptions. Tradeweb recently completed the industry’ s first fully electronic
Daniel Flaim
swaption termination workflow, helping bring greater transparency and efficiency to complex workflows while preserving client flexibility.
Electronic trading is also evolving into cross-market strategies. A recent example was the first fully electronic European invoice spread trade executed via Tradeweb’ s RFM protocol, connecting over-the-counter( OTC) and listed derivatives workflows.
How significant is data in swaps execution? Flaim: It’ s hugely important. Data sits at the centre of modern electronic trading.
Systematic execution depends on high-quality pricing, analytics and historical transaction data. Clients want transparency around execution quality, liquidity conditions and workflow efficiency in real time.
Tradeweb processes more than 150,000 trades daily across its global platform, generating a significant pool of transaction and pricing data that can be leveraged to support sophisticated analytics and automation tools.
Data will continue to play an important role in helping clients automate decision-making,
Where do you see the biggest opportunities for systematic swaps trading? McDiarmid: The next phase will likely focus on deeper automation across complex workflows, more interoperability between products and continued expansion of portfolio-based and cross-market trading.
We continue to see strong growth in emerging markets( EM) swaps. Tradeweb’ s EM swaps ADV grew from approximately $ 1.9 billion in 2020 to more than $ 47 billion in 2025, driven by the benefits of electronification, including improved efficiency, automation, transparency and access to liquidity.
We also see potential opportunities in Australian dollar IRS and Japanese yen IRS. In Japan, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’ s approval late last year for US clients to access the Japan Securities Clearing Corporation was an important market-structure milestone and may create supportive tailwinds. That comes alongside an attractive rates environment in Japan that participants have not seen for over 20 years.
Looking further ahead, we think there’ s growing potential around digital market infrastructure and more continuous trading environments. Whether through tokenised assets, blockchain-enabled settlement or increasingly connected workflows across traditional and digital markets, the underlying theme is creating more efficient, transparent and interoperable market structure.
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