The new users now bring the total subscriber base to over 30 banks and brokers, which represents a leading market position for Swapstream in the electronic IRS sector.

According to the principal industry surveys and research, the IRS market continues to expand at a rapid rate of well over 30% per annum. Financial organisations are increasingly looking to maximise performance by securing electronic trading solutions to meet the growing demand for IRS products.

Swapstream is the neutral provider of the only multilateral platform that facilitates trading for all banks and brokers in the professional IRS market. The company currently offers the greatest liquidity (€800 million on bid and offer) and most competitive and tightest spreads in the electronic IRS industry.

"We want to join an IRS platform that offers access to inter-bank market liquidity in a low broker cost environment," said Thomas Siegmund, European head of rate trading at Lehman Brothers. "This will contribute to greater transparency and sustainability that all market participants will benefit from."

"With the proven combination of liquidity and technology in Swapstream's platform, our participation as a dealer on the platform will enable us to enhance our access to liquidity in the IRS market, thereby providing our customers with the consistent quality and breadth of service they expect from a top tier derivatives house like RBS," said Ian Gaskell, global head of rates at Royal Bank of Scotland.

"At SGCIB, we are focused on being a consistent leader in the ever-growing interest rate swaps market. We joined Swapstream because the platform perfectly mirrors our practices and will enhance our capabilities as we deliver tailor-made, innovative solutions to our clients," said Richard Lamolet of SGCIB. "Swapstream's trading platform, along with its efficient pricing, extreme low cost of implementation and ease-of-use, makes it the most attractive proposition to access IRS liquidity," added Stephane Cuny head of interest rate derivative trading, at SGCIB.

"The rapid growth of subscribers to the Swapstream platform is a telling trend for us as a company and for the industry at large," said Stephane Rio CEO of Swapstream. "The addition of Lehman Brothers, Royal Bank of Scotland and SGCIB shows the tremendous success of our neutral, multilateral IRS trading platform. Today, more and more financial organisations are placing a high importance on securing powerful electronic trading capabilities in the IRS sector. By adopting electronic trading, the industry is demonstrating its readiness to enhance the way it does business and we are very pleased that Swapstream is well positioned to meet this growing demand."