Wedbush Futures is the latest futures commission merchant to join Eris Exchange and offer execution and clearing of its swap futures products.
Head of futures at Wedbush, Bob Fitzsimmons, said the move was a natural step as the firm looks to grow its client base.
“Eris provides the market with easily accessible interest rate swaps in futures format, significantly broadening swap market access to new liquidity providers and commercial end users,” he explained.
The growth of the Eris ecosystem has seen a rise in user interest for Eris swap futures by hedgers and institutional investors, the exchange operator said, having seen a recent open interest record of more than 200,000 contracts.
“Adding Wedbush further bolsters Eris’ distribution, as their clients include new trading firms to provide liquidity in Eris Swap Futures, and new end users from their institutional client base,” said Geoff Sharp, managing director at Eris Exchange.
The Federal Reserve’s proposed capital treatment rule changes for OTC swaps and the FASB’s recent amendments to hedge accounting guidelines should combine to make swap futures more attractive, according to CEO at Eris, Neal Brady.
“Eris is positioned as the optimal alternative to meet client hedging and trading needs, and Wedbush will help bring this opportunity to more users,” he said.